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NASA’s Curiosity rover has photographed the Martian formations nicknamed “spiderwebs” up close. They are geological boxwork: intersecting rock ridges with sandy hollows, not actual webs or signs of organisms. NASA’s leading explanation is that ancient groundwater left minerals in rock fractures, strengthening those zones before wind eroded the softer rock around them.
What Curiosity photographed
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported on February 23, 2026, that Curiosity had spent about six months exploring a boxwork region on Mount Sharp. The rover used its Mastcam to capture a panorama on September 26, 2025. The ridges are roughly 3 to 6 feet (1 to 2 meters) high, with sandy hollows between them, and the formations extend across miles. Viewed from orbit, their intersecting pattern resembles a giant spiderweb. NASA/JPL’s February 2026 report
The rover is examining a layer of Mount Sharp, a mountain about 3 miles (5 kilometers) tall inside Gale Crater. Curiosity has been climbing the mountain since 2014. Sulfate minerals in the surrounding geological record point to water becoming less abundant as the climate changed, while groundwater continued to affect some rocks.
Why scientists think the ridges formed
“Spiderwebs” describes the appearance; the geological name is boxwork. NASA’s leading hypothesis is that groundwater seeped through fractures in bedrock and deposited minerals that cemented or reinforced the rock along those cracks. Later, wind wore away less-resistant material, leaving the stronger zones standing as ridges with hollows between them. This is an interpretation of the evidence, not a process Curiosity witnessed as it happened.
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Curiosity confirmed that dark lines previously visible in orbital images are fractures, which could have provided pathways for groundwater. The pattern also raises questions about why the ridges hardened into such large formations and why the boxwork appears in this area. In a June 2025 report, Curiosity project scientist Ashwin Vasavada called that “a big mystery.” At that time, NASA said the formations had not been identified elsewhere on Mount Sharp by Curiosity or orbiters.
What the rover found in the ridges and hollows
Close-up observations revealed mineral nodules, but their locations were not what the team expected: they appeared along ridge walls and in hollows rather than clustering near the central fractures. “We can’t quite explain yet why the nodules appear where they do,” said Tina Seeger, a Rice University mission scientist leading the investigation. Seeger suggested that mineral cementation may have occurred first, with later groundwater episodes leaving the nodules; that remains a hypothesis.
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NASA/JPL says three samples from the boxwork region were analyzed with X-rays and a high-temperature oven. X-ray analyses found clay minerals in a ridge sample and carbonate minerals in a hollow sample. A fourth sample underwent wet-chemistry analysis using reagents intended to make certain organic compounds easier to detect. Organic compounds are carbon-based molecules relevant to life’s formation; detecting them would not by itself show that life existed on Mars.
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The September 26, 2025 panorama described in NASA’s February 2026 report is not the same as the first close-up image sets reported publicly in June 2025. Those earlier images show the region from distinct viewpoints and were assembled from different numbers of Mastcam frames.
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| Image set | Capture date | View and mosaic size |
|---|---|---|
| Close-up panorama | May 16, 2025 | Close-up; stitched from 15 images. NASA Science image record |
| 360-degree panorama | May 15–18, 2025 | 360-degree context; stitched from 291 Mastcam images. JPL image record |
| Panorama cited in NASA’s 2026 report | September 26, 2025 | Mastcam panorama; NASA’s report does not state a source-image count. NASA/JPL report |
NASA notes that the May 16 close-up image’s color was adjusted to approximate lighting on Earth. NASA/JPL/MSSS is the credit shown on the official image records.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why the terrain matters to the rover
The ridges may look like a route across the landscape, but Curiosity also has to cross the hollows, where sand can make the wheels slip or turn poorly. NASA JPL operations systems engineer Ashley Stroupe described the contrast: “It almost feels like a highway we can drive on. But then we have to go down into the hollows, where you need to be mindful of Curiosity’s wheels slipping or having trouble turning in the sand,”
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Seeger said that finding boxwork this high on Mount Sharp suggests “the groundwater table had to be pretty high.” That observation gives the formations potential value as a clue to the mountain’s water history, while their unusual arrangement and the nodules’ distribution remain unresolved.
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