What is Northwest Africa 7635?
It is a 6.9-ounce (about 200gm) meteorite, discovered in Algeria, Africa, in 2012, that has given scientists unprecedented insight into volcanic activity on Mars. The largest volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons, is found on this planet. However, by analysing the chemical composition, “Northwest Africa 7635”, scientists at the University of Purdue, U.S., learnt this week that Mars had a single volcano that continuously erupted for 2 billion years. Martian volcanoes can grow to such enormous proportions because Mars, unlike Earth, doesn’t have plate tectonics that constantly shuffle the surface. So a volcano, like the one that birthed NWA 7635, can plume — the process by which hot magma from the earth surfaces upward — for billions of years.
