Dubbed Mount Sharp, it appears to be an unusual layer-cake of clay and other sedimentarydeposits that may be relics of ancient water flows and organic chemistry.
In a separate study published in the journal Nature Geoscience, a team led by Bethany Ehlmann, from Brown University, analysed sedimentarydeposits in two deltas within Mars' Jezero crater - which once hosted a body of water measuring some 40km (25 miles) across.