#shergottite

[author-morgan]

okay, but hear me out, martian rocks — shergottite edition.

to anyone who ever said rocks aren’t cool, you’re wrong.

[solaranamnesis]

NWA 1950 Meteorite Thin Section

Recommended print size at 300 ppi = 165.55 x 100.69 inches

[solaranamnesis]

NWA 1950 Meteorite Thin Section

Recommended print size at 300 ppi = 160.0 x 136.96 inches

[solaranamnesis]

NWA 8716 Meteorite Thin Section

Recommended print size at 300ppi = 199.95 x 98.25 inches

[earthstory]

Martian Meteorite Unlocking Secrets of the Red Planet A meteorite that landed in Morocco in July 2011 is helping unlock the secrets of the red planet. The Tissint meteorite was originally formed on Mars around 600 million years ago. This was a typical martian volcanic rock until it was launched off the red planet by an asteroid impact.  University of Alberta researcher Chris Herd estimates this rock traveled through space from between 700,000 and 1 million years before the earth happened to get in the way. The research team was able to match trace gases from the meteorite to samples taken by the Viking lander in 1976. This finding leads to the question, if the gases from Mars can survive in a meteorite after an impact, traveling billions of kilometers, and a million years in space, what else might be able to survive. Panspermia is the theory that life, or the ingredients for life, can be spread by impact ejecta, like the Tissint meteorite, asteroids, or comets. Organic chemistry is known to be common in space; amino acids have even been found in meteorites on earth. But could a life form survive all this? It is still up for much debate but the idea is gaining more and more acceptance the more we learn. -AW Sources/Extra Reading http://science.time.com/2012/10/11/could-martian-bacteria-have-seeded-earth/ http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121011141439.htm

[realgarn]

The Shergottite Association

Shergottites take their name from a meteorite that fell in 1865 in Shergotty, located in the Indian state of Bihar. They are basaltic rocks composed primarily of pyroxene and plagioclase, but unlike the eucrites, these meteorites are mineralogically similar to terrestrial basalts. There are two pyroxenes, calcium-rich augite and calcium-poor pigeonite, and the plagioclase consists of approximately equal parts calcium- and sodium-rich end members. These achondrites are also oxidized, containing some ferric iron (Fe + 3) in the form of the mineral magnetite. Moreover, like terrestrial basalts, the shergottites contain small amounts of a hydrous mineral, in this case the amphibole kaersutite. In fact, this group of meteorites and their relatives are the only achondrites to contain water bound into crystal structures.

Most shergottites are cumulates, consisting of crystals that probably accumulated at the bottom of a magma chamber. The evidence for this assertion comes from the texture of tehse achondrites: Elongated pyroxene crystals, shaped more or less like corn cobs, have formed an oriented network...Such elongated grains could hardly be expected to stand on end after sinking to the chamber floor.

...The view of the parent body interior gleaned from shergottites and associated meteorites is rather different from that for eucrites. What we have seen is a geologically complex body, characterized by multiple period of igneous activity. Isotopic data suggest that the body was originally differentiated about 4.5 billion years ago. The mantle thus formed had a non-chondritic composition, at least in terms of rare earth elements and probably in terms of other elements as well.

--Meteorites and their Parent Planets

(An excellent book I read a few months ago, would recommend)

[monohedron]