Rock/Soil Colors
The first color panorama returned by IMP after Mars Pathfinder's landing included several larger, gray rocks, bright red dust on a flat- topped rock and the ground between the rocks, and darker red soil exposed where Pathfinder's landing dislodged a small rock. The less red color and low reflectance of the rocks is consistent with the iron minerals found in igneous rocks, whereas the fine, bright drift has a spectrum indicative of a weathering product. The strength of the bend, or "kink", in the spectrum is related to the abundance and particle size of specific crustalline, ferric weathering products. In the false color image, the blue areas have a weak kink and are relatively unweathered, whereas the red areas' strong kink indicates an abundance of ferric iron minerals.