Details
Mars Rock – SNC, olivine-phyric shergottite
138 x 135 x 13mm

Unusually fresh and highly captivating: a choice end piece of a Mars rock.

Similar to lot 19 but far larger, both of these specimens originate from the same Mars rock found in the Sahara Desert. Among the most exotic substances on Earth, there is less than 400kg of Mars on Earth known to exist. The delivery mechanism to Earth was an asteroid impact on Mars that ejected material off the Martian surface into an Earth-crossing orbit. The determination of Martian origin is the result of research conducted by hundreds of scientists throughout the world who identify the specific chemical and isotopic markers common to Martian specimens.

The history of the determination of Martian origin fascinates. It had been long believed that an exotic group of meteorites were likely to be specimens of Mars or Venus as they contained minerals evidencing water alteration, a planetary-sized gravitational field on their crystalline structures as well as other planetary markers. These rare meteorites were believed to be from Mars as Venus is much larger and has a stronger gravitational field as well as a thicker atmosphere so far more energy would be necessary to eject Venusian rocks into space than off Mars. And then there was the smoking gun: it was announced that this exotic class of meteorites often contained glassy mineral inclusions, and within the inclusions are tiny vugs, and it was discovered within these voids were minute amounts of gas. The gas was analyzed and was found to match perfectly with the signature of the Martian atmosphere as reported by NASA’s Viking missions in the late 1970s.

Meteorites are named after the places where they are recovered and this end piece was cut from a single small rock found in the Plateau du Tademait region near Adrar, Algeria. The 008 suffix indicates this was the eighth meteorite to be found and classified from the area. Weighing only 2.4 kilograms, this strange looking stone was recovered by Algerian meteorite hunters in the Sahara and was purchased in 2022. Its Martian classification was performed by a team led by Dr. Carl Agee, among the world’s foremost experts in the classification of Martian and lunar meteorites.

The exterior surface of this exceedingly fresh end piece features black patches of fusion crust, an artifact which resulted from its fiery entry through Earth’s atmosphere. When cut and polished, numerous pale green olivine phenocrysts up to ~1 cm in diameter that poikilitically enclose smaller pyroxene grains are much in evidence. The groundmass consists of dark gray pyroxene and olivine grains. In terms of modal abundances, its composition is 50% clinopyroxene, 25% olivine, 10% maskelynite — the impact glass which is unknown to occur on Earth except in meteorites and which contains minute samples of Martian atmosphere — with accessory ilmenite, chromite, Ti-Cr spinel, and pyrite. Modern cutting.
284.5 grams
Provenance
Macovich Collection of Meteorites / New York City
Literature
The analysis of this meteorite was led by Dr. Carl Agee, whose findings underwent peer review by the Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society. The analysis and classification was published in the 112th edition of the Meteoritical Bulletin — the official registry of meteorites.
Brought to you by
Mark WiltshireSpecialist
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