Martian, Polymict Breccia; Sahara Desert, Western Sahara

An exceptionally unusual shiny black meteorite was recovered in 2011 in the North African nation of Western Sahara. Officially named NWA 7034, it was nicknamed “Black Beauty” by Dr. Carl Agee, Director of the Institute of Meteoritics. It was the first of a number of meteorites whose total weight was not much more than three kilograms. A team of scientists led by Agee determined these specimens are extremely notable for five reasons: (1) they originate from Mars, (2) they contain nearly 20x more water than any other Martian samples previously encountered, (3) they are among the very few martian basalts that do not contain maskelynite (impact-melted plagioclase glass), (4) are two billion years of age with 4.4 billion year-old components (which places them among the oldest specimens of Mars on Earth and (5) they are among the relatively rare brecciated Martian samples, (i.e., they are composed of angular fragments of different rock types fused together). These rocks were so novel they were provided a new subtype “Martian, basaltic breccia”. Moreover, last July it was determined that Black Beauty may originate from the Karratha Crater in Mars’s southern hemisphere; approximately10 million years ago the asteroid impact which formed the crater also ejected a large volume of Mars rock into space, some of which perturbed into an Earth-crossing orbit — and it took the long route, a journey of ~15,000 orbits around the Sun before penetrating Earth’s atmosphere.

NWA 7034, is the 7,034^th meteorite from the Northwest Africa region to be recovered, analyzed, peer reviewed and then published in the journal of record, the Meteoritical Bulletin. Black Beauty contains relatively large crystals of plagioclase (a calcium-aluminum silicate) and pyroxene (a calcium-magnesium-iron silicate). These large mineral grains are surrounded by fine-grained material that formed from rapidly cooling lava, most likely following a volcanic eruption. Rock and mineral fragments were incorporated into the flow during the eruption, giving the rock its brecciated appearance. Accessory minerals include chlorapatite, chromite, goethite, ilmenite, magnetite, maghemite, alkali feldspar and pyrite.

As it regards how scientists are certain this is from Mars, approximately forty years ago an exotic group of meteorites were believed to be planetary and most likely from Mars, but there was no proof until research in 1983 produced the smoking gun. Within a couple of these suspected Martian meteorites were tiny vugs and within these vugs were minute amounts of gas. The gas was analyzed and found to match perfectly the signature of the Martian atmosphere as reported by NASA’s Viking missions.

In 2018 the Meteoritical Society’s Nomenclature Committee agreed to reclassify the NWA 7034 pairing group as "Martian (polymict breccia)". The older term, "basaltic breccia," was determined unsuitable because research determined there existed a wide variety of lithologies in Black Beauty other than basalts.

With one perfectly rounded face sculpted by Earth’s atmosphere and two fractured surfaces, this is a notable offering of a specimen of "Black Beauty", among the most exotic, scientifically important and sought-after samples of the planet Mars known.

Christie's would like to thank Dr. Alan E. Rubin at the Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles for his assistance in preparing this catalogue.

61 x 33 x 19mm (2.5 x 1.33 x 0.75 in.) and 55.02 grams