Mars Meteorite Found to Contain High Amounts of Water

In a statement, NASA announced that research funded by the agency has determined that a small meteorite from Mars appears to contain roughly 10 times more water than other Martian meteorites. The discovery gives scientists a better insight and understanding of the evolution of the “Red Planet.”

“The contents of this meteorite may challenge many long held notions about Martian geology,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “These findings also present an important reference frame for the Curiosity rover as it searches for reduced organics in the minerals exposed in the bedrock of Gale Crater.”

Found on Earth in the Sahara Desert in 2011, the recently analyzed meteorite is relatively small at only about 11 ounces, but is yielding large results. Nicknamed “Black Beauty,” the formal designation for the 2.1 billion year-old mars rock is Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034.

Based on its age, the meteorite appears to have formed during most recent geologic period on Mars, known as the Amazonian. “The age of NWA 7034 is important because it is significantly older than most other Martian meteorites,” said Mitch Schulte, program scientist for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “We now have insight into a piece of Mars’ history at a critical time in its evolution.”

The make-up of NWA 7034, say scientists, is different from any previously studied Martian meteorite. Made of cemented fragments of basalt, rock that forms from rapidly cooled lava, the fragments of NWA 7034 are primarily feldspar and pyroxene, most likely from volcanic activity. This unusual meteorite’s chemistry matches that of the Martian crust as measured by NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers and Mars Odyssey Orbiter.

“This Martian meteorite has everything in its composition that you’d want in order to further our understanding of the Red Planet,” said Carl Agee, leader of the analysis team and director and curator at the University of New Mexico’s Institute of Meteoritics in Albuquerque. “This unique meteorite tells us what volcanism was like on Mars 2 billion years ago. It also gives us a glimpse of ancient surface and environmental conditions on Mars that no other meteorite has ever offered.”

Researchers, including teams at the University of California at San Diego and the Carnegie Institution in Washington, theorize the large amount of water contained in NWA 7034 may have originated from interaction of the rocks with water present in Mars’ crust.

To read more about the discovery, the complete research on NWA 7034 was published in Thursday’s edition of Science Express.