The super rover, which has been since this past August, ran its over the past few weeks, analyzing it for its mineralogical makeup. The soil tested appears to be similar to dust and fine soil widespread on Mars, say NASA scientists.

Mauna Kea in Hawaii has an area of volcanic soils that contain minerals similar to those identified in Curiosity's first soil test on Mars. Photo: NASA

And that soil is testing out to be very similar to weathered basaltic soil produced by ancient volcanoes. Similar soil is found in the Hawaiian islands.

"Our team is elated with these first results from our instrument," said David Blake, NASA's principal investigator for Curiosity's Chemistry and Mineralogy instrument. "Our quantitative results provide refined and in some cases new identifications of the minerals in this first X-ray diffraction analysis on Mars."

Early this month, scooped up its first sample of Martian soil when it came across a sandy area that NASA scientists decided would be a good spot for the rover to stop and study.