science

Northwest Africa 7034

Northwest Africa 7034 is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Northwest Africa 7034 rather than just read about it. In short: Northwest Africa 7034 (NWA 7034, nicknamed Black Beauty) is a Martian meteorite. It contains portions estimated to be 4.43 billion years old and contains the most water of any Martian meteorite found on Earth.

Key takeaways

Northwest Africa 7034 belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Northwest Africa 7034 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Northwest Africa 7034 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Northwest Africa 7034 (NWA 7034, nicknamed Black Beauty) is a Martian meteorite. It contains portions estimated to be 4.43 billion years old and contains the most water of any Martian meteorite found on Earth. Although it is from Mars it does not fit into any of the three SNC meteorite categories, and forms a new Martian meteorite group named "Martian (basaltic breccia)". It was purchased in Morocco and a slice of it was donated to the University of New Mexico by its American owner.

Discovery and naming The meteorite was found by nomads in Rabt Sbayta, Ghredad Sabti region, Western Sahara, in the Sahara Desert in 2011, and was purchased in Morocco by a meteorite dealer who sold it to a collector in the United States, as Morocco does not have meteorite export control laws. Like all meteorites that are found in large numbers or sold at markets the name stands for the geographic region (Northwest Africa) and a number, which is given out consecutively.

Description NWA 7034 consists of hundreds of fragments stuck together, containing both very old and very young rocks. It was originally described as a volcanic breccia that has a porphyritic appearance, consisting of plagioclase (andesine) and pyroxene (pigeonite and augite) phenocrysts that are up to 5 mm in diameter set in a fine grained groundmass. Accessory minerals include chlorapatite, chromite, goethite, ilmenite, magnetite, maghemite, alkali feldspar and pyrite. There are even some clasts present that are made of quenched magma. The groundmass is made from fine grained plagioclase, pyroxene, different oxide minerals, and traces of iron sulfides. The whole rock chemistry revealed that NWA 7034 has the highest water content ever measured in a Martian meteorite. The water might be derived from oceans that used to exist on Mars, but were still present when the volcanic rock, that would eventually become the meteorite, was erupted. The meteorite contains components as old as 4.42 ± 0.07 Ga (billion years), and was heated during the Amazonian period of Mars. It is the second oldest Martian meteorite known. However, a team of Japanese researchers who studied the meteorite concluded that water on Mars originated around 4.4 billion years ago.

Classification NWA 7034 is the first Martian meteorite that is a breccia and does not fall in any of the known Martian meteorite groups (shergottite, nakhlite, chassignite and ALH 84001). NWA 7034 was classified as an ungrouped planetary achondrite until the Meteoritical Society approved the new designation "Martian (basaltic breccia)" in January 2013. The iron/manganese ratio is consistent with that of other Martian meteorites, but the oxygen isotopes do not correlate with a Martian origin. The change in oxygen isotope ratios could be explained by removal or addition of heavier or lighter isotopes, or by mixing with a mass with a different isotopic ratio. This could happen during aqueous alteration of the Martian crust. Another explanation would be an isotopic contamination of the Martian crust during impact brecciation. In 2018 the Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society accepted a petition to reclassify the NWA 7034 pairing group as "Martian (polymict breccia)". The older term, "basaltic breccia," was held to be unsuitable because the stones contain a variety of clast types, including impact melts, sedimentary rocks, and a wide variety of other lithologies.

Origin A 2022 study concluded that meteorite NWA 7034 was ejected from Mars by the impact that formed the crater Karratha about 5-10 million years ago in the Terra Cimmeria-Terra Sirenum region of the southern highlands. The authors proposed that before its ejection, this meteorite was part of the ejecta deposits from an earlier impact that formed the nearby Khujirt crater approximately 1.5 billion years ago.

See also Glossary of meteoritics List of Martian meteorites List of meteorites on Mars

References

Book sources

External links Northwest Africa 7034 via The Meteoritical Society - Database entry of the Meteoritical Society

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Northwest Africa 7034

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Northwest Africa 7034 claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Northwest Africa 7034 before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Northwest Africa 7034 ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Northwest Africa 7034

In research: Northwest Africa 7034 appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Northwest Africa 7034 in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Northwest Africa 7034 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Achondrite meteorites, Martian meteorites, Meteorites found in Northwest Africa, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Northwest Africa 7034 outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Northwest Africa 7034 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Northwest Africa 7034 means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Northwest Africa 7034 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Northwest Africa 7034 in simple terms?

Why does Northwest Africa 7034 matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Northwest Africa 7034?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Northwest Africa 7034.