NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover Captures Layered, Flaky Rocks That May Have Formed in an Ancient Pond

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured an incredible image of layered, flaky rocks that may have formed in either an ancient streambed or small pond. A total of six images were combined to make this mosaic and all were captured using Curiosity’s Mast Camera, or Mastcam, on June 2, 2022, the 3,492nd Martian day (sol) of the mission.

For most of 2021, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has been traversing a transition zone from a clay-rich region to one filled with a salty mineral called sulfate. The science team targeted the clay-rich region and the sulfate-laden one to find out more about Mars’ watery past. However, this transition zone is also proving to be scientifically intriguing, since it may provide the record of a major shift in Mars’ climate billions of years ago. The Perseverance rover is already drilling and collecting Martian rock samples.

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We no longer see the lake deposits that we saw for years lower on Mount Sharp. Instead, we see lots of evidence of drier climates, like dry dunes that occasionally had streams running around them. That’s a big change from the lakes that persisted for perhaps millions of years before,” said Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity’s project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.