NASA’s Curiosity rover has delivered its most striking find in over a decade on Mars—close-up images of criss-crossing, spiderweb-like rock patterns on the slopes of Mount Sharp inside Gale Crater. These formations, known as boxwork, have never been studied from the Martian surface until now.
While these structures resemble webs from above, they aren’t the work of Martian insects. They’re geological remnants—thin ridges of minerals left behind when ancient groundwater seeped through cracked bedrock and hardened. After millions of years of wind erosion, the soft rock wore away, revealing what NASA calls “networks of resistant ridges within.”
Curiosity reached the area in early June 2025, after a slow, steady climb up the 3.4-mile-tall mountain. NASA released the images and a 3D interactive video of the site on 23 June, calling the formations a top scientific priority.
Formations offer clues about Mars' watery past
The discovery adds another layer to what scientists already know about Gale Crater. Evidence has long suggested that water once flowed there—rivers, lakes, and perhaps even an ocean. But these boxwork ridges tell a deeper story.
Curiosity found the ridges sitting atop bedrock filled with tiny fractures lined with calcium sulfate—a salty mineral that forms when groundwater evaporates. It’s a tell-tale sign that water once percolated underground. NASA noted that these ridges, some only inches tall, were “hardened and became cement-like” over time.
“The bedrock below these ridges likely formed when groundwater trickling through the rock left behind minerals that accumulated in those cracks and fissures, hardening and becoming cementlike,” NASA said in a statement. “Eons of sandblasting by Martian wind wore away the rock but not the minerals.”
A mystery no one expected this high up
This isn’t the first time Curiosity has seen calcium sulfate. But its reappearance at this height on Mount Sharp caught scientists off guard.
“These calcium sulfate veins used to be everywhere, but they more or less disappeared as we climbed higher up Mount Sharp,” said Abigail Fraeman, Curiosity’s deputy project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). “The team is excited to figure out why they’ve returned now.”
The boxwork features stretch across several miles, yet no orbiting spacecraft had spotted them before. Even Curiosity hadn’t come across anything like it in all its years on the mountain. That makes the find even more unusual.
“A big mystery is why the ridges were hardened into these big patterns and why only here,” said Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity’s project scientist at JPL. “As we drive on, we’ll be studying the ridges and mineral cements to make sure our idea of how they formed is on target.”
The science beneath the webs
Smaller boxwork formations are known on Earth, often inside caves. They form the same way stalagmites and stalactites do—minerals crystallising from water flowing through cracks. But the Martian version is on a different scale. Some patterns span up to 20 kilometres, resembling giant spiderwebs when viewed from space.
Curiosity is currently drilling and analysing rocks within the boxwork zone. The rover is exploring a layer rich in magnesium sulfates—salts that form when water dries up. This suggests the ridges were formed during a transitional climate period as Mars became more arid.
“Remarkably, the boxwork patterns show that even in the midst of this drying, water was still present underground, creating changes seen today,” NASA said.
What this means for Martian life
One of the biggest questions driving Curiosity’s mission remains: did Mars ever support life?
These formations add fuel to that search. With salt-rich water flowing through protected underground spaces, it’s the kind of environment microbes on early Earth could have survived in.
“These ridges will include minerals that crystallised underground, where it would have been warmer, with salty liquid water flowing through,” said Kirsten Siebach, a Curiosity mission scientist from Rice University in Houston. “Early Earth microbes could have survived in a similar environment. That makes this an exciting place to explore.”
The boxwork formations are not to be confused with the so-called “spiders on Mars”—seasonal features caused by carbon dioxide ice erupting from beneath the surface. Those are atmospheric. This is geological, and it’s permanent.
Launched in November 2011 and landing on Mars in August 2012, Curiosity has steadily pieced together evidence that Mars was once habitable. But this discovery may be among its most significant.
Now, the rover will continue drilling, analysing, and moving upward through younger Martian layers. Each step is like walking through a timeline of Mars’ changing climate.
And with every ridgeline and fracture examined, scientists are getting closer to understanding not just how Mars dried up—but whether anything ever lived there.
While these structures resemble webs from above, they aren’t the work of Martian insects. They’re geological remnants—thin ridges of minerals left behind when ancient groundwater seeped through cracked bedrock and hardened. After millions of years of wind erosion, the soft rock wore away, revealing what NASA calls “networks of resistant ridges within.”
Curiosity reached the area in early June 2025, after a slow, steady climb up the 3.4-mile-tall mountain. NASA released the images and a 3D interactive video of the site on 23 June, calling the formations a top scientific priority.
Formations offer clues about Mars' watery past
The discovery adds another layer to what scientists already know about Gale Crater. Evidence has long suggested that water once flowed there—rivers, lakes, and perhaps even an ocean. But these boxwork ridges tell a deeper story.
Curiosity found the ridges sitting atop bedrock filled with tiny fractures lined with calcium sulfate—a salty mineral that forms when groundwater evaporates. It’s a tell-tale sign that water once percolated underground. NASA noted that these ridges, some only inches tall, were “hardened and became cement-like” over time.
“The bedrock below these ridges likely formed when groundwater trickling through the rock left behind minerals that accumulated in those cracks and fissures, hardening and becoming cementlike,” NASA said in a statement. “Eons of sandblasting by Martian wind wore away the rock but not the minerals.”
A mystery no one expected this high up
This isn’t the first time Curiosity has seen calcium sulfate. But its reappearance at this height on Mount Sharp caught scientists off guard.
“These calcium sulfate veins used to be everywhere, but they more or less disappeared as we climbed higher up Mount Sharp,” said Abigail Fraeman, Curiosity’s deputy project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). “The team is excited to figure out why they’ve returned now.”
The boxwork features stretch across several miles, yet no orbiting spacecraft had spotted them before. Even Curiosity hadn’t come across anything like it in all its years on the mountain. That makes the find even more unusual.
“A big mystery is why the ridges were hardened into these big patterns and why only here,” said Ashwin Vasavada, Curiosity’s project scientist at JPL. “As we drive on, we’ll be studying the ridges and mineral cements to make sure our idea of how they formed is on target.”
The science beneath the webs
Smaller boxwork formations are known on Earth, often inside caves. They form the same way stalagmites and stalactites do—minerals crystallising from water flowing through cracks. But the Martian version is on a different scale. Some patterns span up to 20 kilometres, resembling giant spiderwebs when viewed from space.
Curiosity is currently drilling and analysing rocks within the boxwork zone. The rover is exploring a layer rich in magnesium sulfates—salts that form when water dries up. This suggests the ridges were formed during a transitional climate period as Mars became more arid.
“Remarkably, the boxwork patterns show that even in the midst of this drying, water was still present underground, creating changes seen today,” NASA said.
What this means for Martian life
One of the biggest questions driving Curiosity’s mission remains: did Mars ever support life?
These formations add fuel to that search. With salt-rich water flowing through protected underground spaces, it’s the kind of environment microbes on early Earth could have survived in.
“These ridges will include minerals that crystallised underground, where it would have been warmer, with salty liquid water flowing through,” said Kirsten Siebach, a Curiosity mission scientist from Rice University in Houston. “Early Earth microbes could have survived in a similar environment. That makes this an exciting place to explore.”
The boxwork formations are not to be confused with the so-called “spiders on Mars”—seasonal features caused by carbon dioxide ice erupting from beneath the surface. Those are atmospheric. This is geological, and it’s permanent.
Launched in November 2011 and landing on Mars in August 2012, Curiosity has steadily pieced together evidence that Mars was once habitable. But this discovery may be among its most significant.
Now, the rover will continue drilling, analysing, and moving upward through younger Martian layers. Each step is like walking through a timeline of Mars’ changing climate.
And with every ridgeline and fracture examined, scientists are getting closer to understanding not just how Mars dried up—but whether anything ever lived there.
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