Hm. This would have been a lot more convincing if any of the example photos were also of metallic looking things that came out and bent at a weird angle. I cert

Hm. This would have been a lot more convincing if any of the example photos were also of metallic looking things that came out and bent at a weird angle. I certainly understand and am familiar with how rocks may contain different materials that erode at different rates, often leaving protrusions. It's not clear to me what sort of material was in the rock that would erode around it to leave such a shape that was found. Perhaps on earth if you had a deposit of metal that melted in volcanic action and then filled a crack or seam in a rock which was in a later age pushed up? This does bring up another point of curiosity - with so little water on the ground, the atmosphere of Mars is likely very dry as well. Would metals oxidize as easily on Mars? Probably not. Perhaps any oxidation that did occur would be little enough to be sand blasted off from the dust storms, leaving exposed metal deposits remaining shiny.