NASA Curiosity Rover is currently doing the operations of science on the surface of the red planet in the crater. Scientists have been believed for a long time that this crater was once an ancient lake, and many of the curiosity rocks are rolling, once they were sediments at the bottom of that lake. This week was published a new study that helps to add to the understanding of where the rock history is preserved or destroyed the evidence of a damp past on the surface of Mars and potential signs of ancient life.

Tom Bristow, the main investigator of Chemin and the main author of the new research document, says that scientists used to think that layers of clay minerals formed at the bottom of a lake in the crater and remained that way, preserving the moment in which they were created. However, the team has now found that later, salted brine broke clay minerals into some areas and restarted the rock record. The significant amount of non-disturbed rock layers is a specific reason that the crater Gale was chosen as the landing site for curiosity.

The team was surprised to discover that in an area, about half of the clay minerals that are expected to have been discovered. Instead of those clay minerals, the researchers discovered the barro stone rich in iron oxide. The iron oxide is what gives Mars its iconic red color. The researchers knew that Mudtone’s sample was of the same age and began almost at the same time, and loaded with clay.

As a curiosity, he explored sedimentary clay deposits throughout the crater, scientists wondered why patches of those clay minerals and the evidence they sustained disappeared. The scientists knew that the Diagenesis occurred on Mars, which is a process in which some pockets of Mudstone experience different conditions and processes due to the interaction with water that changes its mineralogy. Digénesis can erase the previous record recorded on the floor and write a new one.

The rise of the disappearance of ROCK is that the process of diadence in Earth can create unique habitats where microbes thrive, known as deep biosphera. If scientists can find similar deep biosphera on Mars, they potentially supported signs of past microbial life.