Sigh.The rock guys aren't so smart aft...

Sigh.

The rock guys aren't so smart after all. I thought from the picture in reply 281 that the scoop had pulled a rock out of position and sampled the soil under the rock.

Yay!

However, a closer examination of a before / after animation shows that the rock was moved only slightly and mostly rotated -- so the soil sample is not from under a rock.

Boo!

It looks like this may simply be the start of another trench.

Have shovel. Will travel: Phoenix

For anyone interested, I did a little study of the contents of the latest scoopful of Super Oxydol soil ( Garan-teed to clean all them dirty Mars bugs from 'yer britches ) here.

Just the same o' same o'