What is the soil on mars composed of?

Question

i can see it's red but what is the chemical composition of the soil? do we know? don't get too scientific either because i am not a scientist.

Answer 1

Mostly silicon with some iron and other inorganic compounds.

Answer 2

To my knowledge, the surface of mars is covered mostly by basalt. A lot of the surface is also covered by iron oxide dust.

Answer 3

mostly iron.

Answer 4

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/

Fine volcanic dust. NASA tells all about the chemical composition in the article. Basically, they call it "Mars Dust".