La Bajada

La Bajada
La Bajada La Bajada captured the MER scientists’ attentions because it is a possible contact zone, where one rock ‘contacts’ another. The site features two different bedrock units in direct proximity separated by rubbly terrain: the southern outcrop is darker in tone and lumpy with rocks; the northern outcrop is flatter and lighter toned, and features ‘telltail’ clues of being scoured by an erosive force that MER Principal Investigator Steve Squyres, MER Deputy P.I. Ray Arvidson, and others believe is wind, a fundamental finding. NASA / JPL-Caltech / Cornell University / Arizona State University