The analysis of 200 Martian meteorites that have fallen to Earth reveals that they originate from only 5 locations, which are “scars” in the Tharsis and Elysium regions.
A team of scientists from the University of Alberta (Canada) has traced the origins of 200 Martian meteorites collected from various locations on Earth to understand why our neighboring planet is ejecting these rocks toward us.
The study has identified 5 large impact craters in 2 volcanic regions known as Tharsis and Elysium on the Red Planet.
These 5 “gun barrels” are linked to 5 ancient, violent events.
The 5 impact craters on Mars are the “homeland” of hundreds of meteorites shot all the way to Earth – (Illustration AI: Anh Thu).
NASA estimates that about 44 tons of meteoric material falls to Earth each day, although most of it descends to the surface as inconspicuous small dust particles. However, occasionally, there are rocks large enough for us to collect.
According to Space.com, in the 1980s, a group of meteorites aged 1.3 billion years, seemingly sharing a volcanic origin, attracted attention.
This indicates that these rocks must come from a celestial body with recent volcanic activity – “recent” by geological standards – making Mars a potential candidate.
A Martian meteorite fell in the Sahara Desert in 2022 – (Photo: Steve Jurvetson).
Concrete evidence emerged when NASA’s Viking spacecraft was able to compare the atmospheric composition of Mars with gases trapped in these rocks, confirming that they are indeed meteorites from our neighboring planet.
However, Mars does not naturally shoot rocks toward Earth. These ejections require a significant impact – that is, powerful meteorite collisions striking Mars, causing the planet’s surface material to break apart and be ejected with enough force to escape the planet’s gravity.
These fragments become wandering meteorites in the Solar System. Some have landed on Earth – possibly after thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even billions of years – providing scientists a golden opportunity to study the geology of the Red Planet.
Knowing exactly where these meteorites originated on Mars will allow them to better piece together the planet’s geological past.
The research team has now combined common spectroscopic matching techniques to compare the composition of materials with high-resolution simulations of impacts on a Mars-like planet.
This modeling helps to determine the size of the impact crater or the range of crater sizes that could have launched those meteorites, along with many specific details related to the event.
Ultimately, the steps of screening and correlating surface data from Mars led them to the 5 craters in the 2 volcanic regions of Tharsis and Elysium.
The results also enhance their understanding of when volcanic events occurred on Mars, the different magma sources on the planet, and the rate of crater formation during Mars’s Amazonian period, which occurred around 3 billion years ago and may have been when the planet harbored life.
