FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[James Catmur]

I know it is a bit far to go and the crystals are small but a great one for our collections

https://www.livescience.com/tiny-mineral-flower-on-mars

[SteveB]

Looks like a fossilised hand reaching out of the ground like the end of many horror flicks.


I would have thought the massive dust storms would destroy any interesting surface growths on Mars, here we get the “desert rose” formations even in sand dunes on beaches where they can be pretty fragile. It's interesting it's an unusual shape like a coral really and the flat mud surface ones seem to follow dendritic growths on earth. So, this one is probably a different salt composition to what we normally get here. I wonder what that says about the geological or biological processes between our planets. I think Venus will be more interesting geologically if we ever create the craft and instrumentation to get there and survive to send pictures and data back.

Thanks, I’d missed this announcement.
And let me know if I can tag along on a fossicking trip:), one way will do me.