NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover is examing a zone where two regional rock units neighbor each other near “Marias Pass.”
The rover is inspecting an area where at least two types of bedrock meet, finding pale mudstone and darker, finely bedded sandstone.
Story-telling rock
According to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Curiosity website: “On Mars as on Earth, each layer of a sedimentary rock tells a story about the environment in which it was formed and modified. Contacts between adjacent layers hold particular interest as sites where changes in environmental conditions may be studied. Some contacts show smooth transitions; others are abrupt.”
This site of mudstone and sandstone also includes a thin band of coarser-grained rock that’s different from either of these materials.
Full operation
In late May, Curiosity climbed an incline of up to 21 degrees to reach Marias Pass, guided by images from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Curiosity’s international team of researchers has resumed full operations of the car-size mobile laboratory after a period of limited activity during most of June.