Lunar Meteorite: Northwest Africa 8010

Northwest Africa 8010 (58 g). Photo credit: Matt Morgan
A slice of NWA 8010. Photo credit: Matt Morgan
The interior of the meteorite is quite stunning. These images emphasize a recurring issue in interpretation of classification descriptions of brecciated lunar meteorites: Sometimes the clast size is large relative to the size of the sample in the thin or thick section upon which the classification is based. Photo credits: Matt Morgan
Lab sample of NWA 8010. Photo credit: Randy Korotev

from The Meteoritical Bulletin, No. 102

Northwest Africa 8010 (NWA 8010)

Morocco
Found: 2013
Mass: 58 g (1 piece)

Classification: Lunar meteorite (feldspathic breccia)

History: Reported found near Zagora, 2013.

Physical characteristics: Single stone, gray-brown fusion crust, black melt veins visible through the crust. Saw cut reveals dark breccia clasts with fragmental feldspar and light fine-grained clasts up to 1-2 cm, bounded by black shock melt veins 1-4 mm wide, melt veins contain vesicles up to 1 mm.

Petrography: (C. Agee, UNM) Fragmental breccia with melt veins. Anorthositic and gabbroic clasts, fragmental plagioclase, pyroxene, olivine, oxides and sulfides set in a cataclastic groundmass. Abundant glassy melt veins with suspended submicron metal/sulfide blebs, plumose quench crystal zones up to 1 mm wide at groundmass cooling contacts. Vesicles confined mostly in the center of melt veins. Shock melt spherule 500 µm.

Geochemistry: (C. Agee and N. Muttik, UNM). Olivine Fa31.7±7.5, Fe/Mn=93±5, n=14; forsteritic olivine Fa7.4±1.5, Fe/Mn=100±16, n=2; pyroxene Fs33.8±11.1Wo17.0±9.9, Fe/Mn=57±7, n=21; plagioclase An96.2±1.3Ab3.4±1.2Or0.4±0.2, n=10; glassy impact melt (mean value from EMPA with 20 µm beam) SiO2=45.55±1.28, TiO2=0.52±0.23, Al2O3=25.34±2.86, Cr2O3=0.13±0.03, MgO=7.54±2.21, FeO=5.99±1.03, MnO=0.08±0.03, CaO=14.35±1.41, Na2O=0.42±0.16, K2O=0.16±0.07 (all wt%), n=7.

Classification: Achondrite (lunar meteorite). Feldspathic impact melt breccia. Chemical composition of glassy impact melt (proxy for bulk composition) is that of high-alumina basalt.

Specimens: A total of 11.6 g, including a probe mount, is on deposit at UNM, MtMorgan and Reed hold the main mass.

Randy Says…

NWA 8010 is a feldspathic lunar meteorite that is moderately rich in KREEP elements, with a composition like Apollo 16 soil.

More Information

Meteoritical Bulletin Database

NWA 8010

References

Korotev R. L. and Irving A. J. (2017) Still not keeping up with the lunar meteorites – 2017. Lunar and Planetary Science XLVIII, abstract no. 1498.

Korotev R. L. and Irving A. J. (2021) Lunar meteorites from northern Africa. Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 206–240. 

Miley H. M., Agee C. B., Korotev R. L., Muttik N., and Morgan M. (2014) Northwest Africa 8010: Feldspathic regolith breccia with abundant crystalline lunar spherules. 45th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, abstract no. 2823.

Lunar Meteorites
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