Moon Rock on Card

Hold a piece of the universe in your hand!

Moon Rock: A piece of the lunar meteorite NWA 11273 Feldspathic breccia

Specimen size approx. 2 mg

Northwest Africa 11273

Algeria

Purchased: April 2017

Classification: Lunar meteorite (feldspathic breccia)

History: Material excavated from a site near Tindouf, Algeria was purchased by a consortium of collectors (Rob Wesel, Eric Twelker and Jason Phillips) in April 2017 from Moroccan dealers.

Petrography: Breccia composed of mineral clasts of anorthite, olivine, exsolved pigeonite, pigeonite, augite, chromite, Ti-Cr-Fe spinel, kamacite, taenite and troilite in a finer grained matrix containing small vesicles and minor barite. Rare basalt clasts and glass fragments are also present.

Geochemistry: Olivine (Fa8.7-59.7, FeO/MnO = 89-111, N = 4), pigeonite (Fs28.8Wo11.2, FeO/MnO = 56), clinopyroxene host (Fs15.3Wo40.9, FeO/MnO = 44), orthopyroxene exsolution lamella (Fs34.0Wo2.7, FeO/MnO = 56), augite (Fs16.8Wo41.7, FeO/MnO = 62), plagioclase (An95.9-96.5Or0.2, N = 2).

Classification: Lunar (feldspathic regolith breccia).

Specimens: 37 g including one polished slice at UWB; remaining pieces shared by Mr. R. Wesel, Mr. E. Twelker and Mr. J. Phillips.

Moon rock or lunar rock is rock that is found on the Earth's Moon including lunar material collected during the course of human exploration of the Moon, or rock that has been ejected naturally from the Moon's surface (and which has then landed on the Earth as meteorites). Wikipedia