NASA’s Curiosity rover has discovered some strange light-colored rocks on Mars. The rocks are similar to granitic continental crust rocks of Earth. The discovery has provided researchers the first evidence that continental crust existed on the Red Planet.

Researchers thought of Mars as a basaltic planet, having a cover of dark, dense igneous rocks similar to those making up the Earth's crust below our oceans.

The researchers have reported in Nature Geoscience that some rocks were analyzed by the rover after it landed in the Gale Crater. The rover determined by using its ChemCam laser instruments that some of the rocks were distinctively brighter.

“Along the rover's path we have seen some beautiful rocks with large, bright crystals, quite unexpected on Mars. As a general rule, light-colored crystals are lower density, and these are abundant in igneous rocks that make up the Earth's continents”, said Roger Wiens of Los Alamos National Laboratory, lead ChemCam scientist.

After doing a chemical analysis of the rocks, researchers concluded that the rocks were rich in feldspar, along with quartz. This makes these rocks very similar to the granitic rock of the Earth's continental crust.

Fragments of very ancient igneous rocks, nearly 4 billion years old, are present in Gale crater. The results were reported this week in Nature Geoscience, 'In situ evidence for continental crust on early Mars.'

Researchers gathered important information about the Red Planet's primitive crust by conducting studies on Gale crater.