He was also a leading engineer for all of the previous NASA Mars rovers including Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity.

[2] The rover team determined the rock to be a suitable target for the first use of Curiosity's contact instruments, the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) and the Alpha particle X-ray spectrometer (APXS).

[4] The mineral content and elemental abundance indicates Jake M rock may be a mugearite, a sodium rich oligoclase-bearing basaltic trachyandesite.

On Earth, such rocks form when magma, usually found in volcanoes, rises to the surface, cools and partially solidifies with certain chemical elements, while the warmer liquid magma portion becomes enriched with the left-behind elements.

The little cavities on its surface were formed by the blast-effect, which is caused by different flow dynamics at the micro-relief.