It’s quite moving to hold a piece of Mars in your hands… to reflect on its incredible interplanetary journey, and the science that gives confidence as to the origin of this unusual piece of rock.
This is the 2kg main mass of DaG 1037, an igneous Martian shergottite meteorite discovered in 1999 in the Dar al Gani desert of Libya. Meteorites are often found in North West Africa, not because they land there more often, but because they are easy to spot as peculiar objects in the desert sands. (It’s like searching for your car keys where the streetlight shines bright).
“DaG 1037 is one of the most important of the very few Martian meteorites that have been discovered and scientifically classified to date. It contains large shock-melt veins, gas vesicles and shock-altered olivine, indicating that it was very close to, if not precisely at, the impact site of an asteroid which occurred approximately 175 million years ago on the planet Mars, and was the likely source of almost all known Martian meteorites. The composition of this particular specimen includes basalt, cooled lava rich with iron and magnesium, indicating that there was active volcanism on Mars 474 million years ago, proof that it was a living planet, unlike the dead rock of the Moon. Indeed, the early Martian atmosphere was much thicker, warmer and wetter than it is today, possibly even capable of sustaining life.” — Heritage 2011
“Unlike lunar meteorites where there are believed to be upwards of 35 source impact sites, all Martian meteorites are believed to be from one asteroid impact/source crater. The only way the surface rock could have been ejected into space from the surface of Mars, would be as a result of a huge asteroid impact on the planet’s surface; the energy required to reach escape velocity is so enormous that normal meteorite impacts or volcanic explosions would not provide enough energy release. Such a huge asteroid impact would have had a catastrophic effect on the Martian environment and may be the cause of the loss of the Martian atmosphere and the disappearance of its surface water and possibly life. So, these few meteorites from Mars may provide mute testament to the destruction of the Martian environment and extinction of its life forms.” — Heritage 2008
From the geochemistry and various isotopes, we can deduce the origin and transit time of interstellar objects (a bit like Carbon-14 dating for formerly living artifacts on Earth). The meteorites from Mars exhibit precise elemental and isotopic compositions similar to rocks and atmosphere gases analyzed by spacecraft on Mars, starting with the Viking lander in 1976. Compared to other meteorites, the Martians have younger formation ages, unique oxygen isotopic composition (consistent for Mars and not for Earth, a unique signature for each planet), and the presence of aqueous weathering products. A trapped gas analysis concluded that their origin was Mars quite recently, in the year 2000.
It’s igneous rock with large olivine megacrysts in a fine-grained groundmass of pyroxene and maskelynite; with Ti-rich chromite, sulfides, phosphates, and Fe-rich olivines.
This one reminds me of the rocks strewn about on the surface of Mars. Because its fusion crust (the common thin black exterior formed from the heat of Earth’s atmosphere on entry at Mach 25) was sandblasted away in the Libyan desert, it looks more like it would have on Mars. It looks like it came out of one of the rock strewn fields in the earliest color photos from the Mars lander.
The size claim is as of 2015. Not sure what has been found since.
It is the latest addition to the Space Museum at work.
Maritan material is far more rare than diamond, and they are often in smaller samples. Here is a example with the former 
Leave a Reply to subarcticmike Cancel reply