As part of its investigation of "Victoria Crater," NASA's Mars Exploration
Rover Opportunity examined a promontory called "Cape Verde" from the
vantage point of "Cape St. Mary," the next promontory clockwise around the
crater's deeply scalloped rim. This view of Cape Verde combines several
exposures taken by the rover's panoramic camera into an approximately
true-color mosaic. The exposures were taken during late-morning lighting
conditions.
The upper portion of the crater wall contains a jumble of material tossed
outward by the impact that excavated the crater. This vertical
cross-section through the blanket of ejected material surrounding the
crater was exposed by erosion that expanded the crater outward from its
original diameter, according to scientists' interpretation of the
observations. Below the jumbled material in the upper part of the wall
are layers that survive relatively intact from before the crater-causing
impact.
The images combined into this mosaic were taken during the 1,006th Martian
day, or sol, of Opportunity's Mars-surface mission (Nov. 22, 2006). The
panoramic camera took them through the camera's 750-nanometer,
530-nanometer and 430-nanometer filters.