ALH84001 Martian Meteorite

The ALH84001 meteorite of the Allan Hills 84001 meteorite has been given its name due to the
location at where it was first discovered on the 7th of August, 1997. The discovery was made in
Antarctica in an area Allan Hills.
The image above has been extracted from the source - (Steele, n.d.).
There have been numerous questions whether the PAHs were indigenous to the Martian
meteorites and suggested that they leached out of the Antarctic ice and selectively concentrated
on carbonate mineral surfaces. They concluded that the organic matter in ALH84001 is a mixture
of terrestrial PAH contaminants and fallout from carbonaceous chondrites or interplanetary dust.
Clemett et al. (1998) refute much of Becker et al. (1997) by showing that the ice from Allan Hills
contains essentially no PAHs, that the carbonate minerals do not preferentially absorb PAHs, and
that the spatial distribution of PAHs in ALH84001 is inconsistent with contamination.
Furthermore, other Allah Hills meteorites that did not originate from Mars contained little or no
PAHs based on the same procedures used to detect PAHs in ALH84001. Bada et al. (1998)
demonstrated that all of the amino acids extracted from ALH84001 were terrestrial contaminants,
suggesting that other compounds might also represent contamination.
Carbon isotopic studies are not conclusive about the origin of the carbonate and organic carbon
in ALH84001. Excitement was generated by early reports of 13C-depleted (13C~32.3%) and
barely detectable amounts of methane (13C >>-60%) (Wright et al., 1997). Jull et al. (1998)
measured the stable and radioactive isotopes of the carbonate and organic carbon associated with
the globules. They found that carbonate had little or no 14C and was isotopically unlike terrestrial
carbon. In contrast, most of the organic carbon contained 14C and was deemed to be terrestrial
contamination. However, the high-temperature pyrolyzate of acid-resistive carbon, which
accounts for ~8% of the total, had no 14C and was depleted in 13C. This small amount of non-
carbonate carbon was deemed extraterrestrial but not necessarily of biogenic origin. Becker et al.
(1999) confirmed at least two types of organic carbon in ALH84001. Terrestrial contamination
associated with the carbonate globules yields 13C of -26%. After mild acid treatment, the residue
yields of 13C of -8% which was interpreted to indicate a mixture of the terrestrial contamination
at 13C of -26% and carbonate at 13C of ~36%. After strong acid treatment, the residue yielded
13C of -15%, which was offered as proof for extraterrestrial kerogen. Becker et al. (1999)
concluded that this acid-resistant residue was delivered to Mars in carbonaceous meteorites,
which returns us to the argument that the PAHs in ALH84001 are not of biological origin (e.g
Bell, 1996)
Other studies of Martian meteorites present additional evidence for and against a biological
origin for the bacteria-like structures in ALH84001. Isotopic analysis of the sulfides associated
with the carbonate globules found no evidence for sulfur processing by bacteria (Greenwood et
al, 1998; Shearer et al., 1996). Stephan et al. (1998) found that PAHs were distributed broadly in
the meteorite and not concentrated in the carbonate globules, as indicated by McKay et al.
(1996). There results were confirmed by Becker et al. (1999) and further dissociate the PAHs
from the bacteria-like structures. On the other hand, McKay et al. (1997) reported biofilms in
ALH84001 that resemble sheath-like biological materials in terrestrial sediments.
In summary, although circumstantial evidence suggests that the PAHs in ALH84001 could
represent extraterrestrial biomarkers, the question of contamination remains. Stronger evidence
for extraterrestrial biomarkers and life on Mars may requires samples returned directly from a
Mars probe, where contamination is less likely (K. E. Peters, 2005, p. 982).