Mineral Deposits on Mars Give NASA's Curiosity a Glimpse into Watery Past
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has found minerals at four locations, indicating water was present sometime during the planet's ancient past.
According to The Huffington Post, Curiosity spotted mineral veins atop Mount Sharp, a 3.5 mile high formation. The veins are mineral deposits in rock cracks, created when fluids passed through cracks in rock. While some are light-toned, due to calcium sulphate, other veins are dark. The chemical nature of dark veins is yet to be ascertained.
"Some of them (veins) look like ice-cream sandwiches: dark on both edges and white in the middle. These materials tell us about secondary fluids that were transported through the region after the host rock formed," said Linda Kah, a Curiosity team member at the University of Tennessee.
The double-tone veins are 2.5 inches high and half the size in width. NASA also found the existence of hematite, jarosite and cristobalite at three different locations downhill on Mount Sharp by drilling samples and analysis.
Researchers believe that difference in minerals found along the veins atop the mount and those found in other locations could reveal evolving stages of Martian environment. The mineral findings come on the heels of nitrogen in sand and mudstone samples.
