<p>What you can see in the bottom picture is sandstone/mudstone/claystone.</p>

<p>If you look at the bottom picture top right you can see a thin rock that has split off, this is how a rock splits after it has been heated and then suddenly gets cooled down as it does on Mars when the Sun goes down.</p>

<p>On Earth the change in temperature is too slow for this to happen in nature, but you can see this if a fire has been burning on top of a rock/stone and it has been rapidly cooled down.</p>

<p>This is how mining was done before explosives where invented, heating up the rock until it is "glowing" hot and then throwing water on the rock to suddenly cool it down so it fractures.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-15T17:58:48.810Z
According to the answers on space exploration SE the surrounding is mudstone.
Cornelis
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-15T18:00:52.047Z
so the particle size is smaller but the same material edited answer.
trond hansen
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-15T18:07:21.603Z
I've read about intercalation of CaSO4 veins with mudstone layers, so the white stuff could be the CaSO4.
Cornelis
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-15T18:14:48.770Z
rock id is off topic here so i focused on the mecanism that created the thin rocks,you will find the same types of material on mars as you will on earth.
trond hansen
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-15T18:24:44.840Z
But I asked specifically about that thin piece of material on the mudstone.
Cornelis
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-15T17:52:44.703Z
2020-01-17T12:35:40.977Z
2020-01-17T12:35:40.977Z
trond hansen
<p>If you enlarge the picture and follow a line at 1 o'clock from the weirdly shaped piece in question, a few feet away from it at the back of an imaginary 'man's head' rock, you will see a similar convoluted piece.  Now follow a line at 10 o'clock from our original specimen, and also a few feet away is a longer,straighter piece in the process of eroding from the rock. Nearby are more pieces eroding.</p>

<p>It seems to me that there were cracks or voids in the sandstone/mudstone into which a harder intrusion has been introduced. As the rock erodes, which is more slowly on Mars than on Earth because of the lack of wind and rain, these intrusions are eroding out and sometimes end up lying on the surface. As to the nature of the harder rock which forms the intrusions, I couldn't say. Perhaps someone else will have an idea. Is there anything like it on Earth? Probably, because most things on Mars have their counterparts on Earth, but I couldn't tell you where to look for these strangely shaped rocks.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-18T14:46:26.120Z
Credible explanation ! You used the term "convoluted" and indeed it looks folded and deformed, but *after* eroding. Still you name the piece, "rock". Are there rock materials that can be bended or deformed without crumbling ?
Cornelis
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-18T16:21:41.403Z
Not after they have formed and hardened. Some are deposited by mineral-bearing water, and minerals are precipitated in cavities. In other  cases there are molten intrusions which are volcanically forced into cavities or even create cavities, where they harden. The exception to this is where the strata are deep and under great heat and pressure. In such cases, the pressure of plate movements can cause folding and deformity in the course of many millions of years. Such bending of solid rock without crumbling involves huge layers of strata, not tiny pieces of rock.
Michael Walsby
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-17T23:24:57.790Z
2020-01-17T23:33:13.333Z
2020-01-17T23:33:13.333Z
Michael Walsby
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/Wa1LS.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Wa1LS.jpg" alt="piece of material from Mars"></a></p>

<p>The above is a magnified part of the original image below captured by the Curiosity rover on Mars on sol 1729 (June 17, 2017).<br>
 From the added information with that raw image it can be estimated that the distance between the lens and the target was about 14 cm.  </p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/CzaxR.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/CzaxR.jpg" alt="original image"></a>  </p>

<p>Below another image of the thin piece with surroundings in the sunshine.<br>
Click (or double click) on the image for magnification.   </p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/8D2eJ.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/8D2eJ.jpg" alt="piece with surroundings"></a> </p>

<p>Asking about the <a href="https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/40837/what-likely-is-the-chemical-composition-of-the-thin-piece-of-material-on-the-sur">chemical composition of this piece of material</a> on <strong>space exploration SE</strong>, it appeared from the answers that most likely it is CaSO<span class="math-container">$_4$</span>, perhaps the hydrated form <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gypsum" rel="nofollow noreferrer">gypsum</a>.<br>
I've seen many other <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw-images/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">raw images</a> from Mars, but not anything like this.</p>

<p>What could this thin piece of material be, does it resemble anything on Earth ?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-15T15:42:57.743Z
@ebv  It's not a rock, and it's not from Earth. I don't ask for guessing, i ask for resemblance.
Cornelis
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-15T19:32:25.773Z
@ebv: this isn't like the typical rock ID questions we get, where someone has a rock, taken a usually out of focus photo & asked, "what is it?", because the rock to them looked either weird of "pretty". Such questions lead nowhere & are of no value to this site. This question is about NASA photos of geological/mineralogical features on Mars & it has merit. It's not a rock in isolation with no context, but a rock or mineral in-situ. I'm voting to keep this question open.
Fred
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-15T21:47:45.713Z
@Conelisinspace It doesn't look like plastic to me either mainly because of its shape. To some extents, it looks like a fossilized remain of "something" or a trace fossil, who knows
y chung
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-16T08:54:00.470Z
@ebv The consensus [appears to be](https://earthscience.meta.stackexchange.com/a/1774/6) that *We should retain questions that are interesting for some other reason than "identify this rock"*, which would certainly include this question.  Therefore I think this question should be welcome to remain.
gerrit
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-16T09:26:54.103Z
@gerrit  I need to click twice for the highest magnification, so indeed double click is not exactly the right description. Do you agree and would you like to edit that again ?
Cornelis
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-16T09:43:58.270Z
@Conelisinspace It's a bit much to cover all possible user interfaces in parenthesis. Click, click twice, tap, push...
gerrit
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-17T15:32:05.163Z
*Thin*? What are its dimensions?
Jan Doggen
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-17T16:26:27.040Z
Put that into your question please.
Jan Doggen
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-01T11:30:02.777Z
Top one looks a lot like geo-textile to prevent weeds growing through :P
Will
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-01T15:21:23.123Z
@Will  Then this could be proof of past intelligent life on Mars ! :)
Cornelis
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-02-01T15:44:43.597Z
Well I might not go that far, but suburban gardeners anyway...
Will
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-23T02:20:40.783Z
reminds me a lot of this! https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/q/24353/6031
uhoh
<geology><geochemistry><mars>
Considering the thin piece of material on the surface of Mars in the image below, is there anything like it on Earth?
Cornelis
# Considering the thin piece of material on the surface of Mars in the image below, is there anything like it on Earth?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-01-15)

[![piece of material from Mars](https://i.sstatic.net/Wa1LS.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/Wa1LS.jpg)

The above is a magnified part of the original image below captured by the Curiosity rover on Mars on sol 1729 (June 17, 2017).  
From the added information with that raw image it can be estimated that the distance between the lens and the target was about 14 cm.

[![original image](https://i.sstatic.net/CzaxR.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/CzaxR.jpg)

Below another image of the thin piece with surroundings in the sunshine.  
Click (or double click) on the image for magnification.

[![piece with surroundings](https://i.sstatic.net/8D2eJ.jpg)](https://i.sstatic.net/8D2eJ.jpg)

Asking about the [chemical composition of this piece of material](https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/40837/what-likely-is-the-chemical-composition-of-the-thin-piece-of-material-on-the-sur) on **space exploration SE**, it appeared from the answers that most likely it is CaSO$\_4$, perhaps the hydrated form [gypsum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gypsum).  
I've seen many other [raw images](https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw-images/) from Mars, but not anything like this.

What could this thin piece of material be, does it resemble anything on Earth ?

**Tags:** geology, geochemistry, mars

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: @ebv  It's not a rock, and it's not from Earth. I don't ask for guessing, i ask for resemblance.  
> **username_1**: @ebv: this isn't like the typical rock ID questions we get, where someone has a rock, taken a usually out of focus photo & asked, "what is it?", because the rock to them looked either weird of "pretty". Such questions lead nowhere & are of no value to this site. This question is about NASA photos of geological/mineralogical features on Mars & it has merit. It's not a rock in isolation with no context, but a rock or mineral in-situ. I'm voting to keep this question open.  
> **username_2**: @Conelisinspace It doesn't look like plastic to me either mainly because of its shape. To some extents, it looks like a fossilized remain of "something" or a trace fossil, who knows  
> **username_3**: @ebv The consensus [appears to be](https://earthscience.meta.stackexchange.com/a/1774/6) that *We should retain questions that are interesting for some other reason than "identify this rock"*, which would certainly include this question.  Therefore I think this question should be welcome to remain.  
> **username_0**: @username_3  I need to click twice for the highest magnification, so indeed double click is not exactly the right description. Do you agree and would you like to edit that again ?  
> **username_3**: @Conelisinspace It's a bit much to cover all possible user interfaces in parenthesis. Click, click twice, tap, push...  
> **username_4**: *Thin*? What are its dimensions?  
> **username_4**: Put that into your question please.  
> **username_5**: Top one looks a lot like geo-textile to prevent weeds growing through :P  
> **username_0**: @username_5  Then this could be proof of past intelligent life on Mars ! :)  
> **username_5**: Well I might not go that far, but suburban gardeners anyway...  
> **username_6**: reminds me a lot of this! https://earthscience.stackexchange.com/q/24353/6031  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_7 on 2020-01-15. Score: 3

What you can see in the bottom picture is sandstone/mudstone/claystone.

If you look at the bottom picture top right you can see a thin rock that has split off, this is how a rock splits after it has been heated and then suddenly gets cooled down as it does on Mars when the Sun goes down.

On Earth the change in temperature is too slow for this to happen in nature, but you can see this if a fire has been burning on top of a rock/stone and it has been rapidly cooled down.

This is how mining was done before explosives where invented, heating up the rock until it is "glowing" hot and then throwing water on the rock to suddenly cool it down so it fractures.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: According to the answers on space exploration SE the surrounding is mudstone.  
> **username_7**: so the particle size is smaller but the same material edited answer.  
> **username_0**: I've read about intercalation of CaSO4 veins with mudstone layers, so the white stuff could be the CaSO4.  
> **username_7**: rock id is off topic here so i focused on the mecanism that created the thin rocks,you username_5 find the same types of material on mars as you username_5 on earth.  
> **username_0**: But I asked specifically about that thin piece of material on the mudstone.  

---

### Answer by username_8 on 2020-01-17. Score: 2

If you enlarge the picture and follow a line at 1 o'clock from the weirdly shaped piece in question, a few feet away from it at the back of an imaginary 'man's head' rock, you username_5 see a similar convoluted piece. Now follow a line at 10 o'clock from our original specimen, and also a few feet away is a longer,straighter piece in the process of eroding from the rock. Nearby are more pieces eroding.

It seems to me that there were cracks or voids in the sandstone/mudstone into which a harder intrusion has been introduced. As the rock erodes, which is more slowly on Mars than on Earth because of the lack of wind and rain, these intrusions are eroding out and sometimes end up lying on the surface. As to the nature of the harder rock which forms the intrusions, I couldn't say. Perhaps someone else username_5 have an idea. Is there anything like it on Earth? Probably, because most things on Mars have their counterparts on Earth, but I couldn't tell you where to look for these strangely shaped rocks.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Credible explanation ! You used the term "convoluted" and indeed it looks folded and deformed, but *after* eroding. Still you name the piece, "rock". Are there rock materials that can be bended or deformed without crumbling ?  
> **username_8**: Not after they have formed and hardened. Some are deposited by mineral-bearing water, and minerals are precipitated in cavities. In other  cases there are molten intrusions which are volcanically forced into cavities or even create cavities, where they harden. The exception to this is where the strata are deep and under great heat and pressure. In such cases, the pressure of plate movements can cause folding and deformity in the course of many millions of years. Such bending of solid rock without crumbling involves huge layers of strata, not tiny pieces of rock.  

---

