Martian, Basaltic BrecciaMorocco

“Black Beauty” is the nickname given to a unique, shiny black Martian meteorite recovered in the Sahara in 2011 along with other related specimens launched off of Mars at the same time. The formal name of the meteorite is Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034. Martian meteorites are among the rarest substances on Earth; less than 0.3% of known meteorites are from Mars and Black Beauty is rarer still: it is the second oldest Martian meteorite, having crystallized from a magma more than two billion years ago. It contains relatively large crystals of the minerals plagioclase (a calcium-aluminum silicate) and pyroxene (a calcium-magnesium-iron silicate); these grains grew slowly as the magma cooled deep beneath the surface of Mars. The large mineral grains are surrounded by fine-grained material that formed from a quickly cooled magmatic liquid, probably during a volcanic eruption. Rock and mineral fragments were incorporated into the liquid during the eruption, giving the rock a brecciated (i.e. fragmental) appearance. Black Beauty is also unusual in that it contains 10-30 times more chemically bound water than other Martian meteorites, probably a result of the water-rich magma from which it crystallized.