Mars: Strange rock pillar spotted by NASA’s Curiosity Rover

Mars is definitely full of surprises. After the strange “mineral flowers”the rover Curiosity, which surveys the surface of the red planetunveils images of a new discovery: a strange mineral formation that seems to come out of the ground and rise in the form of thin columns above the Martian floor of the crater Gale.

 The images unfortunately do not have a scale, but we can probably assume that they are small formations, a few tens of centimeters high. Although strange, these rock columns were not shaped by Martians. At least there is a more scientific explanation.

For experts in setiwho shared the image acquired on May 17, it would simply be the molding of an old crack, which would have been previously filled with cement mineral stronger than the sedimentary rock surrounding it. Over time, the winds Martians completely eroded the sedimentary rock forming the bottom of the crater, disintegrating it grain by grain, to leave in place only the cement consolidated forming the molding, which now rises above the ground.

We certainly owe the existence of this kind of fine mineral architecture to the weakness of Martian erosion, compared to the powerful erosive processes governing the Earth’s surface.