![\"Kiri](\"https:\/\/www.wkiri.com\/mdrs_crew89\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/IMG_3342.JPG\")
<\/a>Kiri and Mike contemplate the road ahead<\/p><\/div> So after lunch, Carla, Mike and I suited up. We exited the airlock at 1:45 p.m. and roared out on our three ATVs onto the “highway”, a moist concoction of snow and mud, but still quite drivable. As commander for the EVA, I led the group, with a mirror strapped to my left forearm so I could glance back and check on Carla and Mike without turning around (which is very difficult in the suits, and would be very unsafe if done while driving). I checked my GPS unit every so often so that I would know when the intersection with Cactus Road was at hand. I’d pre-loaded the GPS not only with our final destination but also with some waypoints compiled into a “route” (my first exercise of this GPS capability). Everything went fine at first—but then we overshot Cactus Road. We turned around and headed back slowly. I could see the waypoint blinking at me on the GPS screen, but we just could not find a road or track of any sort heading east of Lowell, due to thin but obscuring snow cover. After some dithering and scouting expeditions on foot, we gave up on that goal. Instead, I decided that we would head north on Lowell until we found an interesting outcrop and just map that.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Carla and Kiri traversing the Lowell North Sedimentary Outcrop<\/p><\/div>As we went north, I was anxious—as commander of the EVA, it was my responsibility to make good use of our time, and I was thrown off by the failure to find Cactus Road. Would we even see anything interesting to the north? I’d been up there before on EVA 5 and only had a dim impression of lots and lots of soft, squishy, muddy Morrison Formation. I wanted solid rock with interesting structure to map. <\/p>\n
<\/a>Kiri delights in the outcrop<\/p><\/div> Mike doing his Star Wars sandpeople impersonation<\/p><\/div> We clambered up to the Dakota layer, and I walked Carla and Mike through the process of identifying layers and noting them down on paper. It definitely was good to have multiple people there. I couldn’t see my own suit well enough even to get the pencil out of my shoulder strap holder. We didn’t have a Jacob staff or Brunton compass, so we made do with a T-square we’d found in the EVA room, which had been augmented with a plumb bob to aid in standing it straight up. Carla and Kiri sense a disturbance in the force<\/p><\/div> We measured 13 distinct layers over 146.5 inches (the entire exposed section) and Carla and Mike took copious pictures to augment my hasty sketches. (Pencil, by the way, is highly superior to ballpoint pen in 36 F weather.) The layers were a combination of fine horizontally bedded sandstone, medium sand layers inclined about 30 degrees, and conglomerate layers with gravel and pebbles. Some of the latter seemed to have some inverse grading (finer grains at the bottom, coarser grains near the top), which can be created by debris (mud) flows<\/a>, as opposed to deposition from water or air. <\/p>\n Kiri and the rock hammer<\/p><\/div> We spent a good chunk of time at the outcrop, then toured around it, also noting an impressive cave that sat below our level, under a treacherous overhang composed of the same crumbly\/poorly consolidated rocks. We kept our distance from the edge despite its undeniable allure. I found a chunk of gypsum buried in some sand, and we collect a couple of other small samples to bring back to the Hab. <\/p>\n You can view the full EVA 16 information, including a map<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/a> And then we lucked out! We spotted a low hill topped with some Dakota sandstone to the east of the road. (More accessible than the top of Olympus Mons, too!) We parked the ATVs and headed over on foot. And yes! It was fantastic! (Back at the Hab, we would learn that this site has a name: Lowell North Sedimentary Outcrop. So someone else thought it was worth study, too.) <\/a><\/a><\/a>