Overview
- The four fragments of NWA 13441, found near Rafsa in Algeria in December 2019, were analyzed in a paper published in August 2026 that reports a crystallization age of 1,273 ± 21 million years.
- Researchers used samarium–neodymium measurements on nine mineral fractions to build an errorchron that gives the 1.27 billion‑year age, but the data show extra scatter (MSWD ≈ 19) so the age is robust yet not a perfect isochron.
- The rock is an olivine‑phyric shergottite that also carries near‑chondritic neodymium isotopic values, a combination that implies either a previously unsampled, relatively undifferentiated Martian mantle reservoir or mixing of known reservoirs.
- Physical signs of strong shock and about 7% pyroxene‑rich melt glass indicate high‑pressure impact processing consistent with ejection from Mars, while the reported age refers to when minerals crystallized on Mars not the time of ejection or Earth fall.
- Scientists caution that a single, context‑free meteorite cannot rewrite Mars’s volcanic history but say the find narrows a major sampling gap, will refine models of Martian mantle heterogeneity, and motivates more targeted isotope work and ideally contextual sample returns.