[meteorite-list] New Martian Meteorite Found In Antarctica (MIL 03346)

[Ron Baalke]

Donald Savage
Headquarters, Washington                     July 20, 2004
(Phone: 202/358-1727)

Leslie Fink
National Science Foundation, Arlington, Va.
(Phone: 703/292-5395)

Paul Taylor
Smithsonian Institution, Washington
(Phone: 202/357-2627)

Jeffrey Bendix
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland
(Phone: 216/368-6070)


RELEASE: 04-232

NEW MARTIAN METEORITE FOUND IN ANTARCTICA

     While rovers and orbiting spacecraft scour Mars searching 
for clues to its past, researchers have uncovered another piece 
of the red planet in the most inhospitable place on Earth -- 
Antarctica. 

The new specimen was found by a field party from the U.S. 
Antarctic Search for Meteorites program (ANSMET) on Dec. 15, 
2003, on an ice field in the Miller Range of the Transantarctic 
Mountains, roughly 750 km (466 miles) from the South Pole. This 
715.2-gram (1.6-pound) black rock, officially designated MIL 
03346, was one of 1358 meteorites collected by ANSMET during 
the 2003-2004 austral summer. 

Discovery of this meteorite occurred during the second full 
field season of a cooperative effort funded by NASA and 
supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to enhance 
recovery of rare meteorite types in Antarctica, in the hopes 
new martian samples would be found.

Scientists at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of 
Natural History involved in classification of Antarctic finds 
said the mineralogy, texture and the oxidized nature of the 
rock are unmistakably martian. The new specimen is the seventh 
recognized member of a group of martian meteorites called the 
nakhlites, named after the first known specimen that fell in 
Nakhla, Egypt, in 1911.

Like the other martian meteorites, MIL 03346 is a piece of the 
red planet that can be studied in detail in the laboratory, 
providing a critical "reality check" for use in interpreting 
the wealth of images and data being returned by the spacecraft 
currently exploring Mars. Following the existing protocols of 
the U.S. Antarctic meteorite program, scientists from around 
the world will be invited to request samples of the new 
specimen for their own detailed research.

Nakhlites are significant among the known martian meteorites 
for several reasons. Thought to have originated within thick 
lava flows that crystallized on Mars approximately 1.3 billion 
years ago, and sent to Earth by a meteorite impact about 11 
million years ago, the nakhlites are among the older known 
martian meteorites. As a result they bear witness to 
significant segments of the volcanic and environmental history 
of Mars.

The U.S. Antarctic Meteorite program is a cooperative effort 
jointly supported by NSF, NASA and the Smithsonian Institution. 
Antarctic field work is supported by grants from NASA and NSF 
to Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland; initial 
examination and curation of recovered Antarctic meteorites is 
supported by NASA at the astromaterials curation facilities at 
Johnson Space Center in Houston; and initial characterization 
and long-term curation of Antarctic meteorite samples is 
supported by NASA and the Smithsonian Institution at the 
National Museum of Natural History in Washington.

Details concerning initial characterization of the specimen and 
sample availability are available through a special edition of 
the Antarctic Meteorite Newsletter, to be immediately released 
on the Web at:

http://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/curator/antmet/amn/amn.htm

The edition also will be mailed to researchers worldwide.

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