Scientists stunned after Mars Curiosity rover finds weird 2-tone mineral veins

The findings suggest that even after the lake that once filled Gale Crater dried up, fluids were rushing between the cracks of the rocks on the planet’s surface.

The Mars Curiosity rover has stumbled upon two veins of minerals within rocks in the middle of the Gale Crater, adding an exciting bit of evidence that water once flowed even after the lake dried up.
The Curiosity rover, which arrived on the surface of Mars in 2012 to hunt for evidence of life and the water that may have given rise to it, is in the midst of climbing Mt. Sharp in the middle of the Gale Crater, where there used to be a lake eons ago. The rover discovered two-tone veins of minerals that suggested that water flowed through the rock at one point, helping scientists further understand the history of water on the Red planet, according to a Los Angeles Times report.
The deposits were found in what is known as Garden City about 39 feet above the lower part of the outcropping known as the Pahrump Hills at the basal layer of Mt. Sharp towering three miles into the Martian sky.
The veins have been described as resembling an ice cream sandwich since it has a light, almost white-colored vein, and a dark vein. It’s the dark vein that has scientists atwitter, as it resembles those found on Earth that typically indicate mineral deposits left behind by salt water.
Most of the veins have been light-colored and filled with calcium sulfate, but the dark parts that were found lining those lighter parts were an unexpected find, said Linda Kah, a sedimentary geologist at the University of Tennessee and a member of the Curiosity team.
She said the finding helps researchers understand the chemistry of the rocks in the region, as well as tell a story of the fluids that were on Mars for long periods of time.
Kah called it an “exciting” find, and noted that some of the dark spots are chemically vastly different from other dark spots, which adds a layer of complexity that “makes it more fun to figure it out in the long run,” she said according to the report.
Even after the lake that once filled Gale Crater dried up, scientists believe these flowing liquids were still around many years later, coursing through the cracks in the stone landscape.
It provides further evidence that Mars may have once had conditions suited to microbial life.