Tinga's Tale

Explore This Section

This image from NASA's Mars Perseverance rover, taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument's left eye, captures a potential contact between brecciated rock and the higher-standing dark-toned rock at the "Tinga" target. The rover acquired this image while driving across the "Idubi" channel's southern border. Perseverance acquired this image on Oct. 14, 2026, Sol 2009 (Martian day 2,009) of the Mars 2020 mission.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

Written by Margaret Deahn, Ph.D. candidate at Purdue University

Oct. 19, 2026

Once upon a time, NASA's Mars 2020 rover investigated the southern border of "Idubi," an outcrop composed primarily of an igneous mineral geologists call olivine. The rover's "eyes" captured a very exciting geologic feature during its traverse - a contact between distinct rock types that could tell a story about the history of this region. This contact is clearly observed at a target named "Tinga."

At "Tinga," there are distinct geologic units in close contact with one another. The lowermost unit is likely a polymict (made of many types of rocks) breccia (made of angular clasts). Breccia is generally formed by violent geologic processes such as an impact event - this breccia may have been formed by an impact similar to the one that created Jezero crater - or even Jezero itself! See a recent rover blog post

/Public Release. This material from the originating organization/author(s) might be of the point-in-time nature, and edited for clarity, style and length. Mirage.News does not take institutional positions or sides, and all views, positions, and conclusions expressed herein are solely those of the author(s).View in full here.

You might also like