Lunar Meteorite: Northwest Africa 11801

from The Meteoritical Bulletin, No. 107

Northwest Africa 11801 (NWA 11801)

Algeria
Purchased: 2016 May 1
Mass: 67.05 (1 piece)

Lunar meteorite

History: Purchased by Miao Bing-an in 2016 from Morocco.

 Physical characteristics: This meteorite is in irregular and brecciated, partially covered with black fusion crust. A saw cut reveals an abundance of fragments set in dark-colored matrix.

 Petrography: (B. Miao, H. Liu, Z. Xia, Guilin University of Technology) The section is composed of abundant mineral fragments and a few lithic clasts and glass set in a fine-grained matrix. The mineral fragments, lithic clasts, and glass areas show irregular shapes and variable textures with different sizes (from ~10 μm to ~4.1 mm across). The matrix is made up of fine-grained minerals bound by glassy cement. Mineral fragments include plagioclase, pyroxene, olivine, and minor ilmenite, chromite, silica, Ni-Fe metal, troilite, armalcolite, k-feldspar. The section contains various types of lithic clasts (anorthosite, gabbro, troctolite, and crystalline impact melt breccia). Several glassy spheres and veins were found in the thin section. One anomalously large glassy vein (up to 2.7 mm thick) that crosscut the section was observed.

Geochemistry: Plagioclase An_91-96Or_<0.4; pyroxene Wo_4-36En_7-69; olivine Fo_10-83. The Fe/Mn ratios of pyroxene and olivine in this meteorite lie approximately along the lunar line, although the range of values is very large (44-79 for pyroxene and 72-127 for olivine).

Classification: Lunar (breccia)

Specimens: Specimen and a polished thin section are deposited in GUT.

Randy Says…

I have not studied Northwest Africa 11801. It may be another pair of NWA 8046 clan.

More Information

Meteoritical Bulletin Database

NWA 11801

References

Chen G., Xia Z., Miao B., Wang Z., Tian W., Zhang Y., Liu H., Zhang C., Xie L., Peng Y., Chen H., and Wang X. (2023) Petrology and mineralogy of volcanic glass in meteorite Northwest Africa 11801: Implications for their petrogenesis. Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 1318-1332. doi.org/10.1111/maps.14058