Curiosity Finds Mysterious Dips on Mars
Curiosity spotted tiny, shallow dips in rocks in Mars’s Gale Crater—features unlike any it had seen during its 14-year mission.
9/16/2026The Curiosity rover found mysterious dips on Mars that it had not seen before during its 14-year mission. They are in rocks in Valle Grande, in Gale Crater, and are about 1 centimeter across. The dips are unusually wide and very shallow.
Similar holes can form when wind slowly removes softer rock around harder minerals. The minerals can then fall out, leaving little pits behind. But this time, scientists found no signs of material that may have once filled the dips.
Curiosity photographed the structures up close with its MAHLI camera. Stereo images from Mastcam may help scientists make detailed 3D models and measure their shapes and depths. In the same area, the rover also noticed unusual gray rock layers that seem much more resistant to erosion than the material around them.
Scientists are now trying to find out whether they have discovered a previously unknown way that Martian rocks weather, or whether special properties of local minerals and dust created these unusual formations.