“Snakes on a Planet?” asks the Mars Curiosity Rover to herself. “No, but this sinuous rock formation I spotted on Mars looks like one.” WHATEVER, Mars Curiosity Rover! I’ve had enough of your lies!
NASA calls this sinuous rock feature the Snake River, which I like, even while it’s not a snake nor a river. It’s actually a “a thin curving line of darker rock cutting through flatter rocks and jutting above sand”.
The science team “plans to get a closer look at it before proceeding to other nearby rocks”. According to Curiosity’s scientist John Grotzinger:
It’s one piece of the puzzle. It has a cross-cutting relationship to the surrounding rock and appears to have formed after the deposition of the layer that it transects.
I like when John gets all geologically kinky.
The panorama was taken using Curiosity’s Navigation Camera during the 133rd Martian day of the her mission. [NASA]