Scientists are searching for evidence of microbial life left behind in these mineral deposits.
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has spied a pitted rock face as it explores a region of the Red Planet known as Mount Sharp, a mountain 3 miles (5 kilometers) tall within Mars' Gale Crater.
Curiosity has been investigating the region for months, examining rocks that mission team members call "boxwork formations. " These geological features resemble spiderwebs when viewed from orbit, but up close appear as low-lying ridges and hollows carved into the Martian rock by wind and erosion.
