4.5-Billion-Year-Old Martian Meteorite Reveals Secrets of Earth’s Origins

What has Iceland in common with Mars?

Not as much these days. However, it's plausible that the Red Planet had a crust similar to Iceland's today more than 4.5 billion years ago. This find might provide knowledge about Earth that has been lost over billions of years of geological movement, concealed among the oldest Martian bits yet discovered on our planet. It could also provide light on why Mars failed to grow into a planet that supports a diverse range of life, in contrast to how the Earth did.

These historical revelations are the result of a recent research that describes how scientists determined the 4.48 billion year old meteorite known as Black Beauty's likely Martian origin. One of the oldest locations of Mars is where it originated. A scientist from Northern Arizona University (NAU) was a member of the worldwide research team that published the work on July 12 in the journal Nature Communications.

According to Valerie Payré, a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Astronomy and Planetary Science, "This meteorite captured the earliest stage of the evolution of Mars and, by extension, of all terrestrial planets, including the Earth." Observing such situations in highly ancient terrains on Mars provides a unique window into the ancient Earth surface that we lost a long time ago, since the Earth lost its old surface mostly owing to plate tectonics.

What Earth's neighbor Mars can teach us

The scientific team, lead by Anthony Lagain from Curtin University in Australia, looked for the origin of a Martian meteorite that was discovered on Earth and was given the official name NWA—Northwest Africa—7034. This meteorite preserved the early stage of Mars' history and its chemistry suggests that Mars formerly experienced volcanic activity similar to that on Earth. The source location and geological context of this material are unknown, despite the fact that it was blasted from the surface of Mars five to ten million years ago as a result of an asteroid collision.

This study group examined the chemical and physical characteristics of Black Beauty to determine its origin. They discovered it came from Terra Cimmeria-Sirenum, one of Mars's oldest areas. It could have a surface that resembles the continents of Earth. Finding the ideal impact crater can be difficult on planets with extensive craters like Mars. In a prior work, Lagain's team created a crater recognition system that analyzes high-resolution photos of Mars' surface to locate tiny impact craters. The program discovered around 90 million craters with a diameter of up to 50 meters. With the help of this investigation, they were able to pinpoint the most likely ejection site—the Karratha crater, which had previously unearthed debris from an earlier crater known as Khujirt.

Ten years before NASA's Mars Sample Return mission is scheduled to send back samples collected by the Perseverance rover currently exploring the Jezero crater, Lagain, a research fellow in the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Curtin, said, "For the first time, we know the geological context of the only brecciated Martian sample available on Earth. "This discovery cleared the door to find the ejection location of other Martian meteorites, allowing us to construct the most complete picture of the geological history of the Red Planet."

To ascertain if Earth and Mars have a shared history that comprises both a continent-like and ocean-like crust, Payré investigates the makeup and origin of Mars' crust. She examines if Mars has any evidence of volcanic activity resembling that of Iceland using orbital images taken in this area.

The origin of these incredible ancient bits might inspire future rover and space missions to study the Terra Sirenum-Cimmeria area, which she claimed holds the key to understanding Mars' crust complexity and potentially the development of the Earth as well. This work "paves the way to locate the ejection site of other Martian meteorites, which will provide the most comprehensive view of the geological history of Mars and will answer one of the most fascinating questions: why Mars, now dry and cold, evolved so differently from Earth, a flourishing planet for life?"

The technique used by the study team has been modified to find impact craters surrounding Mercury and the Moon, two more terrestrial planets. This may be utilized to resolve their geographic past and provide key insights into how they formed and developed. This research serves as a foundation for further studies of the solar system.