DISCOVERED IN SMARA, MOROCCO, 2012

Name: A Complete Meteorite from the Planet Mars (NWA 7397)
Brand: DISCOVERED IN SMARA, MOROCCO, 2012
Price: 35000.00 USD
Availability: SoldOut

Price Realised USD 43,750

Estimate

USD 35,000 - USD 55,000

Closed: 25 Nov 2014

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A Complete Meteorite from the Planet Mars (NWA 7397)

DISCOVERED IN SMARA, MOROCCO, 2012

Price Realised USD 43,750

Closed: 25 Nov 2014

Price Realised USD 43,750

Closed: 25 Nov 2014

Details Lot Essay More from

A Complete Meteorite from the Planet Mars (NWA 7397)
Discovered in Smara, Morocco, 2012
The formal name for this specimen is NWA 7397. Subsequent to its recovery from Morocco in 2012, other matching specimens were found in the same proximity and it soon became clear this was part of a shower of Martian meteorites.
2½ x 2 x 1½in. (6.3 x 5.1 x 3.8cm.)
161.4g

Literature
See entry in the Meteoritical Bulletin Database: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php?code=55749

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Lot Essay

Like many other Martian basalts in the world’s meteorite collections, it probably formed as a basalt flow at or near the surface of Mars. The unusual “poikilitic” texture of this rock is marked by large crystals of pyroxene (a magnesium-iron silicate) enclosing small crystals of olivine (a magnesium-iron silicate) and chromite (an iron-chromium oxide). The texture most likely formed by rapid cooling of the rock from magmatic temperatures. The feldspar mineral grains (a calcium-aluminum silicate) have been transformed into glass, a mark of the intense shock pressure experienced by the rock when it was blasted off the surface of Mars by an enormously energetic impact event.