Studying secondary alteration phases in martian meteorites, allow us to form hypotheses regarding martian water-rock reaction processes. The initial step in these studies and the aim of this work is to identify whether the secondary alteration phases are terrestrial or martian.
Northwest Africa 10416, an olivine-phyric shergottite, displays olivine phenocrysts with orange-brown altered cores and clear unaltered rims. Previous studies have suggested a martian origin for this alteration. However, with evidence gathered from a variety of microanalysis techniques, including X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS), we present a model which predicts a terrestrial origin for this shergottite’s secondary alteration.