Abstract: Since the beginning of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, Vera Rubin Ridge (VRR) has been a location of interest to the MSL science team because of its apparent erosional resistance and strong near-IR (~860 nm) absorption feature seen from orbit in the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission’s Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) data. The strong CRISM absorption feature along VRR was hypothesized to be primarily associated with an increased abundance of crystal-li…