Looking at the text on his helmet's AR display, Andrew quickly reached out and operated the Drilling Machine.
A moment later, driven by the motor, the drill rod gradually withdrew from the ground of densely packed sand and gravel.
Working together, the two men laid the drill rod on the yellow sand.
Then Andrew carefully pressed a button.
The sample poured out of the drill rod, forming a meter-long "color band" with distinct layers on the ground.
It was exactly as Andrew had predicted.
The first 60 cm of the sample consisted of countless fine grains of sand and gravel, mixed with a little soil.
Under 1.9 g of gravity, the abundant sand and gravel and sparse soil were packed tightly together.
The sand and gravel darkened with depth, gradually shifting from yellow to reddish brown.
The reddish-brown section was naturally the hematite they had discovered earlier.
Strangely, however, the reddish brown occupied only part of the sample.
As the depth increased, the sand and gravel returned to their original yellow.
Upon noticing this, Hong Fan quickly crouched down, took measuring tools from the backpack behind him, and made some simple measurements.
Judging by appearance alone, the yellow sections consisted of ordinary sand and gravel, mainly distributed at depths of 0-11 cm and 44-61 cm.
The reddish-brown section contained large amounts of hematite, mainly distributed at depths of 11-44 cm.
Within this range, the hematite content gradually increased with depth.
Beyond 44 cm, the hematite content dropped sharply, disappearing within 2 cm and leaving only ordinary sand and gravel.
Beyond 61 cm, the drill rod contained no more soil or fine sand and gravel, only hard yellow rock.
The depth continued to increase.
Past 80 cm.
A silvery-white substance with a metallic sheen appeared in the rock.
As the depth