Curiosity finds vast honeycomb of polygonal fractures in Mars Valle Grande

ScienceDaily, drawing on materials from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, reported that NASA's Curiosity rover has entered a Martian valley nicknamed Valle Grande covered by honeycomb-like polygonal fractures on a scale the mission has not seen before. Images show polygons about 1.5 to 3 inches (4 to 8 centimeters) across stretching in every direction. A 360-degree panorama from June 19 and 20, on sols 4,930 and 4,931 of the mission, captures the field. The patterns also climb the sides of a nearby butte nicknamed Miraflores, about 20 feet (6 meters) tall and capped by thick sand. Mission project scientist Ashwin Vasavada of JPL said the team measured shapes and chemistry carefully and hopes the data will show how the features formed. ScienceDaily noted Curiosity has seen small clusters of similar shapes before but nothing approaching this extent. Prior polygons sometimes began as drying-mud cracks; warming-cooling cycles and compression that forces water from buried sediment can also create honeycomb ground. Scientists are still determining which process, or combination, shaped Valle Grande. Curiosity landed on Mars on Aug. 5, 2012, and has been climbing Mount Sharp since 2014. JPL built the rover and leads the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate as part of the Mars Exploration Program. Implication: A rover-scale fracture field gives Mars geologists fresh chemical and structural clues about past surface processes near Mount Sharp.