Reading: McSween (1994)
1. Give a brief description for each of the following: (a) shergottite, (b) nakhlite, (c) Chassigny, and (d) ALH 84001.
2. Create a list summarizing evidence for believing that SNC meteorites originate on Mars. Rank items from most persuasive to least persuasive.
3. How old are the martian meteorites?
4. As igneous rocks derived from the martian mantle, SNC meteorites provide information on the mantle of Mars. Besides their ages, what lines of evidence derived from SNC meteorites are cited by the author which bear strongly on our understanding of how the mantle of Mars evolved?
5. The amount and history of water on Mars is a topic
of great interest to many planetary scientists. SNC meteorites contain
water that appears to have originated in two different ways: (a) by weathering
in the near-surface (e.g., regolith) environment, and (b) by incorporation
from hydrous magmas. For each of these two sources, summarize which
phases contain the water, and what studies of these phases imply about
water inventories on Mars.