The Mount

Just when I wanted to start fooling around with mastcam raw images, out pops this gorgeous sol 45 view of the more than 5km high Mount Sharp aka Aeolis Mons on the mission's website!

True colour image of Mount Sharp taken by Curiosity's 100mm Mastcam.
Click the picture to see the full size version. (NASA/JPL/MSSS)

As you may notice there is a bit of a problem when it comes to discerning details under natural colour on Mars. Everything just seems... beige with no diversity in shade. In fact, on the scientist's side, the natural colour reveals very little about something on Mars. So to reveal a little more detail in this beige nightmare, the picture is usually white-balanced to make the scene look like its under a more balanced, Earth-like setting.

White-balanced version. Click to see a full size. (NASA/JPL/MSSS)

There is a lot of compensation on the blue side of the spectrum hence the colour of the sky. You can even clearly see colour differences in the rocks that make up the lower slopes. These are more ancient, Noachian era rocks that should contain more smectite like at John Klein. As you move up the slope towards the lighter-toned rocks we should be seeing more sulphate rich content as we move into the more acidic Hesperian era of Mars and finally the more modern, arid Amazonian rock at the summit. Welcome to Mars' central library of history! Or natural history for that matter!