Journal
SCIENCE ADVANCES
Volume 8, Issue 5, Pages -Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abl7497
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Space Science and Technology Centre
- Microscopy and Microanalysis Facility in the John de Laeter Centre at Curtin University
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Researchers have found a 4.5 billion-year-old zircon in a Martian meteorite, providing evidence that large impacts may have occurred on Mars after 4.48 billion years and potentially affected life on the planet.
After formation of a primordial crust, early impacts influenced when habitable conditions may have occurred on Mars. Martian meteorite Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034 is a regolith breccia that contains remnants of the earliest Martian crust. The paucity of shock deformation in NWA 7034 was previously cited as recording a decline in giant impacts by 4.48 billion years and evidence for habitable Mars by 4.2 billion years ago. We present new evidence of high-pressure shock effects in a 4.45-billion year-old zircon from the matrix of NWA 7034. The zircon contains {112} shock twins formed in the central uplift of a complex impact structure after 4.45 billion years and records impact pressures of 20 to 30 gigapascals. The zircon represents the highest shock level reported in NWA 7034 and paired rocks and provides direct physical evidence of large impacts, some potentially life-affecting, that persisted on Mars after 4.48 billion years.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available