The ancient cratered terrain of the southern highlands of Mars is thought to hold clues to the planet's early differentiation, but until now no meteoritic regolith breccias have been recovered from Mars. Here we show that the meteorite Northwest Africa (NWA) 7533 (paired with meteorite NWA 7034) is a polymict breccia consisting of a fine-grained interclast matrix containing clasts of igneous-textured rocks and fine-grained clast-laden impact melt rocks. High abundances of meteoritic siderophiles (for example nickel and iridium) found throughout the rock reach a level in the fine-grained portions equivalent to 5 per cent CI chondritic input, which is comparable to the highest levels found in lunar breccias. Furthermore, analyses of three leucocratic monzonite clasts show a correlation between nickel, iridium and magnesium consistent with differentiation from impact melts. Compositionally, all the fine-grained material is alkalic basalt, chemically identical (except for sulphur, chlorine and zinc) to soils from Gusev crater. Thus, we propose that NWA 7533 is a Martian regolith breccia. It contains zircons for which we measured an age of 4,428 ± 25 million years, which were later disturbed 1,712 ± 85 million years ago. This evidence for early crustal differentiation implies that the Martian crust, and its volatile inventory, formed in about the first 100 million years of Martian history, coeval with earliest crust formation on the Moon and the Earth. In addition, incompatible element abundances in clast-laden impact melt rocks and interclast matrix provide a geochemical estimate of the average thickness of the Martian crust (50 kilometres) comparable to that estimated geophysically.

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Hypervelocity impact processes are uniquely capable of generating shock metamorphism, which causes mineralogical transformations and deformation that register pressure (P) and temperature (T) conditions far beyond even the most extreme conditions created by terrestrial tectonics. The mineral zircon (ZrSiO 4) responds to 26 shock deformation is various ways, including crystal-plasticity, twinning, 27 polymorphism (e.g., transformation to the isochemical mineral reidite), formation of 28 granular texture, and dissociation to ZrO 2 + SiO 2 , which provide robust 29 thermobarometers that record different extreme conditions. The importance of 30 understanding these material processes is twofold. First, these processes can mobilize 31 and redistribute trace elements, and thus be accompanied by variable degrees of 32 resetting of the U-Pb system, which is significant for the use of zircon as a 33 geochronometer. Second, some features described herein form exclusively during 34 shock events and are diagnostic criteria that can be used to confirm the hypervelocity 35 origin of suspected impact structures. We present new P-T diagrams showing the 36 phase relations of ZrSiO 4 polymorphs and associated dissociation products under extreme conditions using available empirical and theoretical constraints. We present case studies to illustrate zircon microstructures formed in extreme environments, and present electron backscatter diffraction data for grains from three impact structures (Mistastin Lake of Canada, Ries of Germany, and Acraman of Australia) that preserve different minerals and microstructures associated with different shock conditions. For each locality, we demonstrate how systematic crystallographic orientation relationships within and between minerals can be used in conjunction with the new phase diagrams to constrain the P-T history. We outline a conceptual framework for a zircon-based approach to 'extreme thermobarometry' that incorporates both direct observation of high-P and high-T phases, as well as inferences for the former existence of phases from orientation relationships in recrystallised products, a concept we refer to here as 'phase heritage'. This new approach can be used to unravel the pressure-temperature history of zircon-bearing samples that have experienced extreme conditions, such as rocks that originated in the Earth's mantle, and those shocked during impact events on Earth and other planetary bodies.

Orbital data indicate that the youngest volcanic units on the Moon are basalt lavas in Oceanus Procellarum, a region with high levels of the heat-producing elements potassium, thorium, and uranium. The Chang'e-5 mission collected samples of these young lunar basalts and returned them to Earth for laboratory analysis. We measure an age of 1963 ± 57 Ma for these lavas and determine their chemical and mineralogical compositions. This age constrains the lunar impact chronology of the inner Solar System and the thermal evolution of the Moon. There is no evidence for high concentrations of heat-producing elements in the deep mantle of the Moon that generated these lavas, so alternate explanations are required for the longevity of lunar magmatism.

Northwest Africa 7533, a polymict Martian breccia, consists of fine‐grained clast‐laden melt particles and microcrystalline matrix. While both melt and matrix contain medium‐grained noritic‐monzonitic material and crystal clasts, the matrix also contains lithic clasts with zoned pigeonite and augite plus two feldspars, microbasaltic clasts, vitrophyric and microcrystalline spherules, and shards. The clast‐laden melt rocks contain clump‐like aggregates of orthopyroxene surrounded by aureoles of plagioclase. Some shards of vesicular melt rocks resemble the pyroxene‐plagioclase clump‐aureole structures. Submicron size matrix grains show some triple junctions, but most are irregular with high intergranular porosity. The noritic‐monzonitic rocks contain exsolved pyroxenes and perthitic intergrowths, and cooled more slowly than rocks with zoned‐pyroxene or fine grain size. Noritic material contains orthopyroxene or inverted pigeonite, augite, calcic to intermediate plagioclase, and chromite to Cr‐bearing magnetite; monzonitic clasts contain augite, sodic plagioclase, K feldspar, Ti‐bearing magnetite, ilmenite, chlorapatite, and zircon. These feldspathic rocks show similarities to some rocks at Gale Crater like Black Trout, Mara, and Jake M. The most magnesian orthopyroxene clasts are close to ALH 84001 orthopyroxene in composition. All these materials are enriched in siderophile elements, indicating impact melting and incorporation of a projectile component, except for Ni‐poor pyroxene clasts which are from pristine rocks. Clast‐laden melt rocks, spherules, shards, and siderophile element contents indicate formation of NWA 7533 as a regolith breccia. The zircons, mainly derived from monzonitic (melt) rocks, crystallized at 4.43 ± 0.03 Ga (Humayun et al. ) and a 147Sm‐143Nd isochron for NWA 7034 yielding 4.42 ± 0.07 Ga (Nyquist et al. ) defines the crystallization age of all its igneous portions. The zircon from the monzonitic rocks has a higher Δ17O than other Martian meteorites explained in part by assimilation of regolith materials enriched during surface alteration (Nemchin et al. ). This record of protolith interaction with atmosphere‐hydrosphere during regolith formation before melting demonstrates a thin atmosphere, a wet early surface environment on Mars, and an evolved crust likely to have contaminated younger extrusive rocks. The latest events recorded when the breccia was on Mars are resetting of apatite, much feldspar and some zircons at 1.35–1.4 Ga (Bellucci et al. ), and formation of Ni‐bearing pyrite veins during or shortly after this disturbance (Lorand et al. ).