Lunar Meteorite: Northeast Africa 063

from The Meteoritical Bulletin, No. 113

Northeast Africa 063 (NEA 063)

Ajdabiya, Libya
Find: 2021 January
Mass: 42.7 kg (1 piece)

Lunar meteorite (troctolitic anorthosite)

History: This 42.7 kg meteorite was found southeast of Abjdabiya, Libya, near 30.1°N, 21.3°E, in January 2021 and was purchased in-town almost immediately thereafter. It was subsequently acquired by Darryl Pitt from Adam Aaronson and is now part of the Maine Mineral & Gem Museum collection.

Physical Characteristics: The meteorite possesses an orb-like shape with patches of desert caliche as well as swaths of fusion crust. Freshly broken surfaces on the deposit sample reveal a breccia with centimeter sized white feldspar-rich clasts set in a gray groundmass.

Petrography: (C. Agee, UNM) This meteorite is a relatively coarse grained troctolitic anorthosite with the following approximate modal abundances: anorthitic plagioclase (80%), olivine (15%), and pigeonite + augite (5%). Coarse anorthite grains dominate the mineralogy, however some olivine grains are up to several mm in size. This is a monomict breccia with olivine and pyroxene occupying narrow compositional ranges indicating a single, pre-brecciation, plutonic lithology. Fine shock melt veins are ubiquitous.

Geochemistry: (C. Agee and M. Spilde, UNM) olivine Fa_43.4±3.3, Fe/Mn=91±4, n=13; pigeonite Fs_30.5±1.2Wo_14.4±0.5, Fe/Mn=54±3, n=3; augite Fs_30.5±1.2Wo_20.1±3.1, Fe/Mn=48±6, n=7; plagioclase An_97.4±0.4Ab_2.4±0.4, n=4; Shock melt (20 μm defocused electron beam, proxy for bulk meteorite composition): SiO₂=42.7±0.9, TiO₂=0.08±0.03, Al₂O₃=29.4±0.9, Cr₂O₃=0.05±0.02, MgO=5.2±2.1, FeO=7.2±2.2, MnO=0.07±0.01, CaO=15.8±1.6, Na₂O=0.20±0.03 (all wt%) n=3cgc.

Classification: Lunar (troctolitic anorthosite) based on figure 1 in Stoeffler et al. (1980).

Specimens: 61.6 g on deposit at UNM, the Maine Mineral & Gem Museum holds the main mass.

Randy Says…

I have not studied Northeast Africa 063. There are no other troctolitic anorthosites reported from Libya

More Information

Meteoritical Bulletin Database

NEA 063