NASA | JPL-Caltech | MSL Curiosity | 2015 Nov 11
[img3="Veiny 'Garden City' Site and Surroundings on Mount Sharp, MarsScientists now have a better understanding about a site with the most chemically diverse mineral veins NASA's Curiosity rover has examined on Mars, thanks in part to a valuable new resource scientists used in analyzing data from the rover.
This view from the Mast Camera (Mastcam) on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows a site with a network of prominent mineral veins below a cap rock ridge on lower Mount Sharp. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)"]http://mars.nasa.gov/msl/imgs/2015/11/p ... ML-br2.jpg[/img3][hr][/hr]
Curiosity examined bright and dark mineral veins in March 2015 at a site called "Garden City," where some veins protrude as high as two finger widths above the eroding bedrock in which they formed.
The diverse composition of the crisscrossing veins points to multiple episodes of water moving through fractures in the bedrock when it was buried. During some wet periods, water carried different dissolved substances than during other wet periods. When conditions dried, fluids left clues behind that scientists are now analyzing for insights into how ancient environmental conditions changed over time. ...