BBC:
A meteoriteâmdash;called Northwest Africa
(NWA) 7034 and nicknamed "Black
Beauty"âmdash;discovered in the Moroccan
desert in 2011 resembles others from Mars but is distinctly
different in its elemental composition, according to Carl Agee
from the University of New Mexico. Unlike any of the three
current classes of Martian meteorites, the specimen is a
basaltic breccia composed of fragments fused together in a
volcanic eruption, is made up primarily of alkali elements such
as potassium and sodium, and has about 10 times more water. It
is also much olderâmdash;NWA 7034 is about 2
billion years old, whereas most of the other Martian meteorites
are 200 million to 400 million years old. Because of its
greater age, the specimen could provide clues to the early
geologic history of Mars, which may have been a lot warmer and
wetter than it is now.
