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April 2008
Now Meteorites! Click Here

September 18, 2007
New additions!
New minerals added. See our Minerals section clicking here »

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Martian meteorites

Twelve meteorites are apparently samples from Mars. They are commonly referred to as the SNC meteorites (after Shergotty, Nakhla, and Chassigny, the representatives of the first three subgroups known). These martian meteorite subgroups are distinguished on the basis of mineralogy, but they all share isotopic signatures, petrologic characteristics and for some, relatively young crystallization ages (less than 1.4 billion years), which together point to a martian origin. About half of the known martian meteorites were found in Antarctica. The other are falls and finds from elsewhere.

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