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yesterday

Curiosity Rover Finds Boxwork Ridges Revealing Mars’s Underground Water Past

Calcium sulfate veins in these boxwork-patterned ridges show groundwater persisted beneath Mars’s surface long after surface water dried up.

A rocky Martian feature, which resembles a crumbling street curb, is part of a boxwork pattern that stretches for miles in a section of Gale Crater that NASA's Curiosity rover is now exploring.
Image
NASA's Curiosity Rover Captures Close-Up Images of Ridges Suggesting Ancient River Activity | Image: NASA

Overview

  • Curiosity’s Mastcam captured detailed, close-up images of crisscrossing low ridges in a boxwork pattern spanning several miles of Mount Sharp.
  • NASA scientists conclude these ridges formed as mineral-rich groundwater trickled through bedrock cracks, depositing cementlike minerals that resisted erosion.
  • The discovery of calcium sulfate filling small fractures in the ridges indicates groundwater persisted underground long after surface waters vanished.
  • These findings build on earlier evidence of ancient riverbeds and lake deposits in Gale Crater, offering new insights into Mars’s climate evolution and past habitability.
  • As Curiosity ascends Mount Sharp layer by layer, the team plans to drill and sample the newly exposed minerals to assess their formation history and potential for past microbial life.