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RESEARCH BY SCOTTSDALE SCIENTIST PROVIDES EVIDENCE OF ANCIENT OCEAN ON MARS Doug Sawyer, Scottsdale Community College (seated), and ASU’s Carleton Moore display a meteorite from Mars while in the chambers of the Center for Meteorite Studies at ASU. This little meteorite is large in scientific value, the pair has discovered. The Physical Sciences Chair of Scottsdale Community College has helped to provide convincing evidence for the existence of an ancient Martian ocean with a mineral composition similar to Earth’s oceans. Doug Sawyer conducted this mind-boggling research during his 1998-99 sabbatical under the direction of ASU Regents Professor Carleton Moore. Their findings have been announced in the July issue of Meteoritics and Planetary Science. Dr. Sawyer drilled into the interior of a 1.2 billion-year-old Martian meteorite and analyzed the interior portions of the rock (a meteorite is a rock that has fallen to Earth from space). The study, conceived by Moore and carried out by Sawyer at ASU’s Center for Meteorite Studies, represents the first direct detection of water-soluble ions in a Martian meteorite. The results indicate that most of the chlorine and sulfur present in the meteorite are in water-soluble form and therefore probably originated from a water solution – salt water. Their data add to the mounting evidence that surface water existed at one time on Mars. The meteorite, "Nakhla," fell during a meteorite shower in El-Nakhla, northern Egypt in 1911. Evidence indicates Nakhla was formed 1.2 billion years ago and was ejected from the Martian surface 12 million years ago. Its Martian origin was determined in the early 1990’s when scientists analyzed fused portions of the rock (parts that were melted upon impact of an object with the Martian surface and then re-solidified). The fused portions contained the exact, unique combination of gases and isotopic ratios found in the Martian atmosphere. This indicates the rock traveled through the Martian atmosphere, where the gases dissolved in the liquid rock, and then on into space where the fused rock trapped the Martian gases for 12 million years. Only 14 meteorites are currently identified as Martian. The ASU Center for Meteorite Studies possesses portions of eight of these meteorites. "I have been very fortunate to have had this exciting opportunity," Dr. Sawyer says. Click here for next story.