Shocked Zircon Find a 'One-Off Gift' From Mars
upstart writes:
Shocked zircon find a 'one-off gift' from Mars:
Curtin University researchers studying a Martian meteorite have found the first evidence of high-intensity damage caused by asteroid impact, in findings that have implications for understanding when conditions suitable for life may have existed on early Mars.
Published in leading journal Science Advances, the research examined grains of the mineral zircon in Martian meteorite NWA 7034. The meteorite, colloquially known as "Black Beauty", is a rare sample of the surface of Mars. The original 320-gram rock was found in northern Africa and first reported in 2013.
[...] "This grain is truly a one-off gift from the Red Planet. High-pressure shock deformation has not previously been found in any minerals from Black Beauty. This discovery of shock damage in a 4.45 billion-year-old Martian zircon provides new evidence of dynamic processes that affected the surface of early Mars," Ms Cox said.
"The type of shock damage in the Martian zircon involves 'twinning', and has been reported from all of the biggest impact sites on Earth, including the one in Mexico that killed off the dinosaurs, as well as the Moon, but not previously from Mars."
Journal Reference:
Morgan A. Cox, Aaron J. Cavosie, Kenneth J. Orr, et al. Impact and habitability scenarios for early Mars revisited based on a 4.45-Ga shocked zircon in regolith breccia, Science Advances (DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abl7497)
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