Columbia Hills (Mars)

It was also considered a potential landing site for the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover,[1] before the selection of Jezero crater in November 2018.

[2] The seven peaks are, from north to south: With the Spirit rover, scientists found a variety of rock types in the Columbia Hills, and they placed them into six different categories, each named after a prominent rock in the respective group: Clovis, Wishbone, Peace, Watchtower, Backstay, and Independence.

This type of process has been observed in the lab when basalt rocks are exposed to sulfuric and hydrochloric acids.

Peace rocks showed sulfur and strong evidence for bound water, so hydrated sulfates are suspected.

One type of soil, called Paso Robles, from the Columbia Hills, may be an evaporate deposit because it contains large amounts of sulfur, phosphorus, calcium, and iron.

[13] Also, MB found that much of the iron in Paso Robles soil was of the oxidized, Fe+++ form, which would happen if water had been present.

[15] After Spirit stopped working scientists studied old data from the Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES) and confirmed the presence of large amounts of carbonate-rich rocks, which means that regions of the planet may have once harbored water.