Maghreb

The Maghreb (/ˈmæɡrɪb/ or /ˈmʌɡrəb/; literally "sunset";Arabic: المغرب العربي‎ al-Maghrib al-ʻArabī, "the Arab West"; Berber: ⵜⴰⵎⴰⵣⵖⴰ Tamazgha; previously known as Barbary Coast), or the Greater Maghreb (Arabic: المغرب الكبير‎ al-Maghrib al-Kabīr), is usually defined as much or most of the region of western North Africa or Northwest Africa, west of Egypt. The traditional definition as the region including the Atlas Mountains and the coastal plains of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, was later superseded, especially following the 1989 formation of the Arab Maghreb Union, by the inclusion of Mauritania and of the disputed territory of Western Sahara (mostly controlled by Morocco). During the Al-Andalus era in Spain (711–1492), the Maghreb's inhabitants, Maghrebis, were known as "Moors"; the Muslim areas of Spain in those times were usually included in contemporary definitions of the Maghreb—hence the use of "Moorish" or "Moors" to describe the Muslim inhabitants of Spain in Western sources.

Northwest Africa 3009

The NWA 3009 meteorite was found in Northwest Africa during 2001.

Name

Meteorites are usually named after the village nearest their place of discovery. Those found in the deserts of Northwest Africa have mostly been called NWA (for Northwest Africa) followed by a serial number.

History

Like all L chondrites NWA 3009 probably comes from the asteroid 433 Eros, which may have collided millions of years ago with another fragment in the asteroid belt. The debris from the collision departed on an eccentric path, eventually crossing Earth's orbit and impacting as meteorites. The reflectance spectra of Eros correspond quite accurately with those of the L-and LL-chondrites.

It is held in a private collection in Oldenburg, Lower Saxony.

Samples from the meteorite are held by the Mineralogical Museum of the University of Hamburg and the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz.

References

See also

Northwest Africa 7034

Northwest Africa 7034 is a Martian meteorite believed to be the second oldest yet discovered. It is estimated to be two billion years old and contains the most water of any Martian meteorite found on earth. Although it is from Mars it does not fit into any of the three SNC meteorite categories, and forms a new Martian meteorite group named "Martian (basaltic breccia)". Nicknamed "Black Beauty", it was purchased in Morocco and a slice of it was donated to the University of New Mexico by its American owner.

Discovery and naming

The meteorite was found in the Sahara Desert in 2011 and was purchased in Morocco by a meteorite dealer who sold it to a collector in the United States. For this reason the exact geographic coordinates of the find location are unknown, and the strong possibility that meteorites reported to have been found in Morocco are often not (but Morocco does not have meteorite export control laws). Like all meteorites that are found in large numbers or sold at markets the name stands for the geographic region (Northwest Africa) and a number, which is given out consecutively. NWA 7034 carries the nickname "Black Beauty".