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. NASA has named the rock "Timboy Chaco.
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.
