Shadows

The shadows in this picture do not make sense to me:

Also, the shadow on the bottom left appears to comport with the curvature of the "rocks" about the soil. Moreover, the shadows are not as dark as those at the bottom of some of the rocks in the middle (look at the arrowhead-looking rock). They seem to be closer the same color as the darker shade of Martian soil than they are to shadows.

Why are the back of the wheels so bright?

Could these "shadows" be associated with Martian microbes/biology?

Source:

The picture was taken in the morning; 9:52 AM to be exact. So, could it be associated with fog somehow? Frozen fog?

The translucent shadows are less pronounced in the afternoon pictures, but they are still there:

Dry ice down by the camera (blurry soil)?

Does dry ice "flow" through the channels?

Fog coming down the mountainside?

Pictures seem to have been taken at approximately 2:00 PM.

Wide angle lens vignetting light orientation differs from the outer to inner image portions. Partial explanation. Parts of the upper wheel attachment mechanism are in alignment with the lower portion of the wheel section.
Partly the lighting of the sky similarly is affected by accumulation, where the brightness is greater due to increase of the equal area sized measures as the eye views the more centrally located items. The soil is brighter towards the center of the image as the light is angled slighly towards the center of the image, giving the reduced sizes of items farther the center of the field of view. It's math and a non-normal lens used, best studied with a camera and two lens, one near the human field of view, and one a 'wide angle' lens.

Sometimes refered to as 'fish-eye effect'.

In the image straight items not at a radial to the center will curve in appearance, whereas our eyes see a straight line once the brain integrates the two separate 'eye' views when unaided viewing is tested against these Curiosity wide-angle camera views.

The detail loss of distance items is caused by an inability to resolve detail in small distances in the final view. One of the amazing characteristics of the 'giga-pan' type cameras is the ability to resolve fine detail at a distance, giving shadow details and highlight detailing better than a small 'MB' sized file view of the same scene, provided the imaging is exposed to give a recorded exposure of those details. Similar problems are produced in the images stitched, where the measures and lighting become obviously differing for contactual parts of a final scene.
I left out several other aspects of the view, and perhaps someone else can give a better description of lens materials, refractive indice, and glare/diffusion effects.
The ChemCam images are an exaggeration of those effects, seen in the NavCam image in this topic scene.

Are these channels appearing to be water produced to you? I see erosion, but not water scarps nor overlying deposition/erosion records in the scene.
Perhaps we are moving towards a non-water low area to do the initial drilling tests?
Would we be better off moving back to the claimed water depositioned layers for a check of water affected materials if that was the intended use of the rover?
Is this going to be a general record of local predominate geology without seeking the water effect if a channels ran with liquids?

Please explain what we are viewing in this Opportunity MER rover view of sol 3168.
This is a MI view, and the oddest aspect I see is the upper right corner, where a shadow from an elevated item which marks a equivalent pattern in the lower right margins to the underlying and clearly separate materials on the solid surface. Is this a solar product over time, a cratering by-product, or a mineral alteration over time in this or another medium or chemistry mix other than the thin and cold current scene?

I see items, several in number, which are inexplicable in content, without elaborate extension of climate, causation, and active chemistry, not seen in the immediate image.

Spheroid shells, brecciated layering, rounded item shapes, gridded recesses.

The shadow lacks detail, and should be an item of extreme interest, as the objects have been interactive.

What was the positioning and the causes?

All across Mars items appear in unusual shaping, former interactions, and now seem without current climate causation.

Can a cratering cause these current surface details and still be present hundreds of millions or even billions of years later?

Is this a showing of an active local environment, or even a solar cause at a fixed point of timing?

How much of Mars is the product of these actions which we have no explanation for?

Does the Curiosity image in your topic give us a similar alteration climate/environment of unexplained solar directional cause?
Space weathering?
Episodic solar activity?

Speechless I love your brain,will you marry me please?

I am wondering who you are referencing. If me, I am very public and cheap. Not a good object of admiration. and here there are two names. Are you referring to Wildcat, who has a careful eye for the unusual?
I enjoy all these persons who find the unusual or inexplicable details lacking a wise common sense answer in place.

I have binders full of bills, if you like to take a closer look?

And when will Mars give us serious insomnia with a new page in basic new discoveries?