Over the summer, as the sun beats down on the dry Okanagan and Similkameen valleys in British Columbia, anyone passing by on the highway can witness a lake’s extraordinary transformation. As water evaporates from the lake, it appears to don a seasonal leopard print — not made of fur, but of minerals, which materialize in colorful spotted pools.

This kidney-shaped lake, which is half-a-mile long and five football fields wide, is known to Canada’s Okanagan First Nations people as “Kliluk” after the minerals they’ve used in healing ceremonies for thousands of years. More recently others have called it “Spotted Lake” or “Polkadot Lake.” Minimal life survives in the lake’s super salty conditions, which is why, along with a particular set of minerals, it’s been described as a terrestrial analog for ancient Martian lakes.