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Nakhla Mars Meteorite Available For Scientific Study

Antarctic Meteorite Newsletter
February 1998

Nakhla To Be Distributed
By Dr. Monica Grady
Natural History Museum, London

Nakhla is a 1300 million year old Martian meteorite, the first one
in which carbonates were identified.  Nakhla fell as a shower of
stones in 1911; several of the stones are in the collection of the
Natural History Museum in London.

One completely fusion-crusted stone has been kept unbroken since its
acquisition in 1913.

The Natural History Museum is now prepared to offer samples of this stone
to scientists for appropriate analyses.  The Antarctic Meteorite Processing
Group had kindly agreed to allow the stone to be broken and sub-divided
at the Curatorial Facility at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, prior
to the LPSC in March.

There is no formal deadline for sample requests, but the material available
is limited.  Coordinated approaches from groups of scientists undertaking
complementary studies are encouraged.  Those requests submitted to the
Museum by April 3 will be processed in April.  Those arriving later will
be delayed for several months.

For further details and to submit requests, contact:

  Dr. Monica M. Grady
  Dept. of Mineralogy
  The Natural History Museum
  Cromwell Road
  London SW7 5BD
  E-Mail: mmg@nhm.ac.uk