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Tinga’s Tale

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A photograph of the Martian landscape captured by the Perseverance rover. The image shows rough, heavily textured, light-gray and tan rocks of various sizes resting on a dusty, reddish-orange sandy surface. A large, pitted rock dominates the foreground, with smooth sand drifts accumulating around the bases of a cluster of angular rocks in the midground. Sunlight illuminates the scene from the left, casting shadows to the right of the rocks.

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 for more information on the potential breccia in this region.

However, breccia is only the first chapter in the story of our target “Tinga.”

The higher-standing, dark rocks could be associated with the nearby olivine-bearing unit at “Idubi,” which also appears to extend onto the plains beyond the Jezero crater rim. These dark rocks at “Tinga” may be part of this olivine-bearing unit, or they may represent a part of the breccia that was heated, or “baked,” when it came in contact with the hot rocks of “Idubi.” Further in situ investigation of this particular outcrop is needed to determine how the high-standing rocks we observe at this contact are related to this broader unit.

“Tinga” tells a tale about distinct geologic events that occurred just outside Jezero’s crater rim, and the Mars 2020 rover will continue to reveal Jezero’s origin story and exciting geologic history.

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