Comments on: Strange rocks on Mars https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/strange-rocks-on-mars/ Thu, 21 Aug 2025 13:38:05 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Bill Farrand https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/strange-rocks-on-mars/#comment-1619419 Thu, 21 Aug 2025 13:38:05 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=116103#comment-1619419 Robert, sorry for the delayed response… the rock that I interpreted as a lapilli tuff was probably thrown out by an impact. You can go way back to when Opportunity drove out of it’s Eagle crater landing spot and found “Bounce Rock” which had a Shergottite composition and was clearly ejected from a distant crater.

]]> By: Patrick Underwood https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/strange-rocks-on-mars/#comment-1616850 Sun, 10 Aug 2025 17:54:59 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=116103#comment-1616850 I dunno… there’s a famous scene in Jurassic Park that more likely explains the second photo.

]]> By: Lee S https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/strange-rocks-on-mars/#comment-1616238 Fri, 08 Aug 2025 17:10:47 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=116103#comment-1616238 @Don C, I have a couple of fulgurites ( I didn’t know that term, thank you!) from the desert in Tunisia… They are certainly a bit “branchy” for want of a better term, but look no where near as organic looking as this mars rock. It’s an alien world, and we know almost nothing about how it works or has worked, but if fossil hunting it is a rock which would have caught my eye. You are probably nearer the mark, but it’s fun to speculate!

]]> By: Don C. https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/strange-rocks-on-mars/#comment-1615901 Fri, 08 Aug 2025 01:00:11 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=116103#comment-1615901 The top photo might also be caused by a lightning strike that has melted sand (called fulgurites). Then the surrounding material is blown away.

]]> By: Robert Zimmerman https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/strange-rocks-on-mars/#comment-1615858 Thu, 07 Aug 2025 23:41:11 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=116103#comment-1615858 In reply to Bill Farrand.

Bill Farrand: Well, you for sure know more about geology than me. I play a geologist for fun. You do it for real.

How would this rock have formed from explosive volcanism? And if so, would that have been the method for transporting it here?

]]> By: Bill Farrand https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/strange-rocks-on-mars/#comment-1615854 Thu, 07 Aug 2025 23:35:24 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=116103#comment-1615854 The Perseverance rock in NO WAY appears “lava like”. It’s an agglomeration of spherules. There’s a type of volcanic rock known as a “lapilli tuff”. Lapilli are small, often spherical clasts. My guess is that it is a
Lapilli tuff- a product of explosive volcanism, not effusive volcanism.

]]> By: Lee S https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/strange-rocks-on-mars/#comment-1615747 Thu, 07 Aug 2025 19:36:31 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=116103#comment-1615747 I have no clue regarding the second photo, but I literally have extremely similar fossils of corals to the first photo. Mine have more of the matrix still surrounding the fossil itself, but they never had millions/billions of years of gentle sand blasting to expose the goodies…

I’m a rank amateur, and its a very alien environment, but heck! That looks organic in origen to me!

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