Two billion years of magmatism recorded from a single Mars meteorite ejection site.
The timing and nature of igneous activity recorded at a single Mars ejection site can be determined from the isotope analyses of Martian meteorites. Northwest Africa (NWA) 7635 has an Sm-Nd crystallization age of 2.403 ± 0.140 billion years, and isotope data indicate that it is derived from an incompatible trace element-depleted mantle source similar to that which produced a geochemically distinct group of 327- to 574-million-year-old "depleted" shergottites. Cosmogenic nuclide data demonstrate that NWA 7635 was ejected from Mars 1.1 million years ago (Ma), as were at least 10 other depleted shergottites. The shared ejection age is consistent with a common ejection site for these meteorites. The spatial association of 327- to 2403-Ma depleted shergottites indicates >2 billion years of magmatism from a long-lived and geochemically distinct volcanic center near the ejection site.
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204-5007, USA.
Thomas J
TJ
Lapen
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204-5007, USA.
Minako
M
Righter
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Houston, Houston, TX 77204-5007, USA.; Department of Geoscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
Rasmus
R
Andreasen
Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-1310, USA.
Anthony J
AJ
Irving
Department of Geoscience, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706-1692, USA.; NASA Astrobiology Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
Aaron M
AM
Satkoski
Department of Geoscience, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706-1692, USA.; NASA Astrobiology Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
Brian L
BL
Beard
Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
Kunihiko
K
Nishiizumi
Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.
A J Timothy
0000-0002-4079-4947
AJ
Jull
Department of Physics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2036, USA.; Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2051, USA.
Marc W
MW
Caffee
Early Amazonian Magmatism; Mars Geochemistry; Martian Mantle; Martian Meteorite