View of colourful rock formations at the Zhangye Danxia Landform Geological Park in Gansu Province, China. The Zhangye Danxia Landform Geological Park is 40km from Zhangye city. The park spans more than 400 square kilometers in Gansu. The unusual terrain is the result of red sandstone and mineral deposits carved over the years by natural forces. (Photo by ImagineChina/The Grosby Group)

“The scientists behind NASA's $2.5 billion Curiosity rover mission on Mars on Tuesday explained the nature of a tiny, gleaming "flower" embedded in Red Planet rock, and revealed where they'll be using the SUV-sized robot's drill for the first time”. – Alan Boyle via NBCNews.com

Photo: Scientists say that a “Martian flower”, seen here in an image from the Curiosity rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager, is a 2-millimeter-wide grain or pebble that's embedded in the surrounding rock. Another, darker-colored mineral grain can be seen above and to the left. (Photo by NASA)

In this November 19, 2015 photo, Ester Melendez feeds banana porridge to her nine-month-old daughter Dina, in Pichiquia, an Ashaninka indigenous community in Peru's Junin region. Incursions and assaults by loggers, miners, colonists and leftist guerrillas have reduced the lands of the Ashaninka people in the Peruvian Amazon, leaving many of the 97,000 members of the group malnourished, despite efforts by the government and independent organizations to help. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

This November 11, 2014 aerial photo, shows a deforested area dotted with blue tarps, marking the area where miners reside, and craters filled with water, caused by illegal gold mining activities, in La Pampa, in Peru's Madre de Dios region. Less than a month before Peru plays host to global climate talks, the government sent a battalion of police into southeastern jungles to dismantle illegal gold-mining mining camps. Peru's anti-illegal mining czar, retired army Gen. Augusto Soto, marched the men to the wasteland known as La Pampa, where 50,000 hectares of rainforest have been obliterated in the past six years. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

Participants enjoy mud during the 14th Annual Boryeong Mud Festival at Daecheon Beach on July 16, 2011 in Boryeong, South Korea. The mud, which is believed to have beneficial effects on the skin due to its mineral content, is sourced from mud flats near Boryeong and transported to the beach by truck. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

A woman, covered in mud, dances during the traditional “Bloco da Lama” or “Mud Block” carnival party, in Paraty, Brazil, Saturday, February 14, 2015. Revelers in the seaside colonial town threw themselves into deposits of black, mineral-rich slime, emerging covered head-to-toe in the sludge. Bikinis and trunks disappeared beneath the mud, which highlights both gym-pumped pectorals and beer-fed guts. (Photo by Leo Correa/AP Photo)

Mud-covered tourists pretend to be trapped inside a mud prison at the Daecheon Beach Mud Plaza in the city of Boryeong on South Korea's west coast, July 17, as they take part in the Boryeong Mud Festival, which opened that day and runs through July 26. Boryeong mud is rich in natural mineral component and is considered to prevent skin aging. (Photo by EPA/Yonhap)

Thanks to plenty of salt minerals and heavy elements in the soil, the Dallol volcano in Ethiopia produces brilliantly colored pools of water at the top of its caldera. And, as if to add greater effect to the already stunning sights, the volcano stands apart from the salt plains around it like an island. This hotspot was created through phreatomagmatic eruptions caused by magma interacting with water, and was further altered due to the presence of salt water. (Photo by Francisco Pandolfo/Caters News)