Weird Martian soil properties

Hi all,

I was looking at the color photos from the Spirit martian rover, and this one
caught my attention:

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/m...lorimage4.html

It's a photo of part of the surface disturbed during landing, as the
airbags impacted the soil. The spot of impact looks very strange. It
looks like some sort of silt that was peeled yet still sticks to itself.
Part of it appears to have exposed a large rock underneath, as if the
soil above was pulled away in one large chunk. It all seems like some
sort of sticky powder.

Maybe the folks at NASA should target the soil disturbed by the lander
as one of the first stops for the rover...