An international team of scientists has identified a completely new type of rock in a Martian meteorite and, for the first time, found the mineral garnet in a Martian sample. The discovery came from a fragment of meteorite NWA 8171, held in the Royal Ontario Museum’s collections, and was led by Tanya Kizovski of Brock University. According to the University of Portsmouth, the find offers a rare glimpse into Mars’s ancient past and could help researchers piece together its 4.5-billion-year geological history. However, the rock’s Martian origin has not yet been confirmed.
The garnet is described as a new geological time capsule. On Earth, garnet is a dark-red gem that was popular with the Ancient Egyptians, Romans, and Victorian elite, and it is the birthstone for January. The university also calls it a cornerstone mineral in geology, because it records the tectonic forces, ore-forming processes, and fluid-rock interactions that shape Earth’s crust and mantle. In the Martian sample, it preserves clues about the temperatures, pressures, and processes that shaped the planet billions of years ago.
Kizovski, an assistant professor of Earth Sciences at Brock University, and colleagues at the Royal Ontario Museum learned of the garnet while analysing a fragment of NWA 8171. Kizovski set out to identify the fragment’s minerals and chemical composition. The team found the section interesting and the chemistry slightly unusual. It first assumed the mineral was pyroxene, which is very common, but decided to look again. The analysis used the University of Portsmouth Electron Microscopy and Microanalysis Unit and the museum’s specialised laser equipment, and the team was surprised to find garnet. Professor James Darling of Portsmouth’s School of the Environment and Life Sciences was part of the research team.
According to Kizovski, garnet is a classic example of a mineral often found in metamorphic rocks on Earth. Metamorphism transforms igneous or sedimentary rocks through exposure to extreme heat, high pressure, or hot fluids. On Mars, Kizovski said, the heat and pressure needed to produce garnet through metamorphism could have come from a meteorite impact on the surface, from magma rising into the Martian crust, or from both. She said the garnet-bearing rock type could give clues to how Mars has changed through its history and to the ancient environments that may have formed the garnet and related minerals.
Kizovski cautions that the research does not definitively show whether the garnet-bearing rock formed on Mars. It may instead have been delivered to the planet and incorporated into its surface by a meteorite landing, leaving open the possibility of an “extra-Martian” origin. Scientists now need to study the garnet’s isotopic signatures to check whether it was produced on Mars or on another planetary body. Kizovski said measuring oxygen isotopes from the rock itself would help confirm a Martian origin or an exotic meteorite impactor. That process would destroy some of the sample, which has been avoided so far because of its rarity. Kizovski added that it may be the only garnet-bearing Martian rock available for study.
ROM curator Kim Tait and Research Assistant Jessica Tomacic are continuing to study the sample with Professor Darling. Kizovski said she hopes further work and more comparisons with rover and orbital data will reveal more about the origin and history of garnet on Mars. The project is funded in part by the Government of Canada’s Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and the Killam Trusts Dorothy Killam fellowship. It also receives Science and Technology Facilities Council funding at Portsmouth.
Original Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/science/space/scientists-identify-a-completely-new-type-of-rock-in-a-martian-meteorite-and-find-garnet-on-mars-for-the-first-time-but-its-planetary-origin-remains-unconfirmed/articleshow/135454065.cms
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Publish Date: 2026-11-08 05:58:00
