Lunar Meteorite: Dayet el Aam 003

from The Meteoritical Bulletin, No. 113

Dayet el Aam 003 (DeA 003)

Tiris Zemmour, Mauritania
Find: 2022
Mass: 225 g (1 piece)

Lunar meteorite

History: Found in the desert region near the Mauritania-Western Sahara border in 2022. Later sold in 2024 to Matthew Stream and Mark Lyon.

Physical Characteristics: Single stone with minor fusion crust.

Petrography: (D. Sheikh, Cascadia) Sample is a polymict breccia comprised of ~mm to cm-sized lithic clasts, and ~sub-mm to mm-sized mineral clasts, set within a fine-grained matrix (due to brecciated nature of the sample containing larger clasts >1 cm, some regions in the sample display a crystalline melt breccia matrix while other regions display a fragmental matrix). Lithic clast lithologies identified include anorthosites, troctolites, impact melt clasts, and dunites; mineral clast lithologies identified include irregularly zoned olivines, pyroxenes (low-Ca, pigeonite, high-Ca), and chromian spinels. Accessory phases identified include Ca-phosphates, spinel, zircon, SiO2-rich glass, troilite, Fe-Ni metal, and ilmenite.

Geochemistry: Olivine (Fa23.2±15.5, range Fa8.6-55.9, Fe/Mn=84±11, n=53), Low-Ca Pyroxene (Fs25.1±5.4Wo3.7±0.8, range Fs17.5-32.0Wo1.5-4.6, Fe/Mn=62±7, n=23), Pigeonite (Fs27.6±4.5Wo12.0±5.7, range Fs21.4-35.4Wo6.8-23.5, Fe/Mn=62±11, n=13), High-Ca pyroxene (Fs15.8±3.6Wo36.5±3.6, range Fs10.9-22.5Wo25.3-41.4, Fe/Mn=65±12, n=17), Calcic Plagioclase (An93.5±2.0, range An88.3-97.2, n=31).

Classification: Lunar.

Specimens: 20.2 g at Cascadia, main mass with Matthew Stream and Mark Lyon.

Randy Says…

I have not studied Dayet el Aam 003.

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Dayet el Aam 003