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Palomar

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2002-05-30

Posts: 9,734

Re: Mars & Earth Berries... - ...maybe "Cities of Rock" too?

http://www.emnrd.state.nm.us/nmparks/PA … K.HTM]City of Rocks, NM

*This state park is approximately 2-1/2 hours' drive from my home. 

Since Earth and Mars share "blueberries" in common (except ours are larger), I wonder if there might not be clusters of rock formations like New Mexico's City of Rocks on Mars as well.

What's unique about the City of Rocks is its seeming so out of place (I've been there 3 times).  The landscape in this region of NM is pure desolution with gently rolling hills covered with fine desert vegetation (almost like "heather") and tall mountains in the distance.  A rather "gentle" area and all of a sudden this crazy pile of humongous boulders.  There's 1 pic in the collage in the link which gives an idea of the size (oh...a pic of a bunny rabbit in there too...) of the boulders, but not adequate enough.  Most are at least 20 feet tall. 

The City of Rocks is also very compact and "confined."   There is NO gradual going into the City, really NO sprawling "lone boulders" here and there --rather, they are a well-defined and tight cluster.  To the SE, a few hundred yards, is a smaller cluster of smaller boulders; a suburb, I guess.    

You're either in the City of Rocks or you're not.  It's very bizarre and beautiful. 

Anyway, just thought I'd mention it. 

--Cindy

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We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...

--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)