I understand that the rover Spirit has discovered a sample of martian geothite on the Columbia Hills. The story was posted on the science page
at www.cnn.com.

Geothite apparently forms in water.
As interesting as that is, terrestrial geothite can be BLACK and shiny....

I wonder!...Can any of you remember threads posted here on HZ, a
few years ago, debating dark [black?] patches on the martian surfaces?
Hmmmm!...There is a dark [black?] patch on the otherside of the Columbia
Hills. Hmmmm....

Jacob

"The heavens are not stranger than we imagine. The heavens are stranger than we can imagine."
Shakespeare,