{"id":497317,"date":"2026-02-24T23:29:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T23:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/497317\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T23:29:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T23:29:07","slug":"nasas-curiosity-finds-crunchy-nodules-where-ancient-martian-water-once-stood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/497317\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s Curiosity Finds Crunchy Nodules Where Ancient Martian Water Once Stood"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASA\u2019s Curiosity rover got a closer look at strange geological patterns on Mars: hardened ridges with sandy hollows in between that resemble giant spiderwebs when viewed from above. The ancient formations were created by water that once flowed across the Red Planet, leaving behind clues to Mars\u2019s potential habitability in its early past.<\/p>\n

Over the past six months, Curiosity has been carefully treading across a region filled with delicate zigzag ridges that formed when groundwater deposited minerals in cracks that later hardened. Known as boxwork formations, these ridges suggest water flowed in this part of Mars later than scientists expected, raising new questions about how long microbial life could have survived on the Red Planet billions of years ago.<\/p>\n

\"Pia26693\"NASA\u2019s Curiosity captured this panorama of boxwork formations using Mastcam. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/MSSS Martian spiderwebs <\/p>\n

These types of geological formations are also found on Earth, although they\u2019re typically a few centimeters tall and found in caves or dry, sandy environments. The boxwork formations on Mars, however, are approximately 3 to 6 feet (1 to 2 meters) tall and were found along Curiosity\u2019s trail up Mount Sharp.<\/p>\n

Each layer of the 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain formed in a different era of the planet\u2019s changing climate. The higher Curiosity climbs up Mount Sharp, the more data it gathers showing that water on Mars dried out over time, with occasional wet periods suggesting the return of rivers and lakes.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing boxwork this far up the mountain suggests the groundwater table had to be pretty high,\u201d Tina Seeger from Rice University in Houston, one of the mission scientists leading the boxwork investigation, said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cAnd that means the water needed for sustaining life could have lasted much longer than we thought looking from orbit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scientists believe the groundwater once flowed through large fractures in the bedrock, leaving behind minerals, according to NASA. Those minerals then strengthened some areas, which became ridges, while other parts without mineral reinforcement were eventually hollowed out by wind.<\/p>\n

Crispy nodules <\/p>\n

Orbital imagery of the boxwork formations gave scientists some clues as to how they formed, but Curiosity was able to drive up to the ridges to reveal what they looked like up close.<\/p>\n

\"E1NASA\u2019s Curiosity rover discovered bumpy nodules while exploring a region filled with boxwork formations. Credit: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/MSSS <\/p>\n

The rover discovered small bumps in the nodules region that were formed by minerals left behind as water on Mars dried up billions of years ago. Surprisingly, the nodules were found along the ridge\u2019s walls and in the hollows between them rather than in the central fractures.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t quite explain yet why the nodules appear where they do,\u201d Seeger said. \u201cMaybe the ridges were cemented by minerals first, and later episodes of groundwater left nodules around them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Curiosity will keep exploring the ridges until sometime in March before moving on to a different region on Mount Sharp, learning more about how the Red Planet\u2019s climate changed over time.<\/p>\n

The rover had a bumpy ride driving along the ridges, some of which were not much wider than the SUV-sized Curiosity. \u201cIt almost feels like a highway we can drive on. But then we have to go down into the hollows, where you need to be mindful of Curiosity\u2019s wheels slipping or having trouble turning in the sand,\u201d Ashley Stroupe, operations systems engineer at NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said in a statement. \u201cThere\u2019s always a solution. It just takes trying different paths.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s Curiosity rover got a closer look at strange geological patterns on Mars: hardened ridges with sandy hollows…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[49,48,33817,1845,307,66,306],"class_list":{"0":"post-497317","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-curiosity-rover","11":"tag-mars","12":"tag-nasa","13":"tag-science","14":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}