Lunar Meteorite: Northwest Africa 10713

from The Meteoritical Bulletin, No. 105

Northwest Africa 10713 (NWA 10713)

Western Sahara
Purchased: 2016 January
Mass: 60.2 g (1 piece)

Classification: Lunar meteorite (feldspathic breccia)

History: Purchased in January 2016; reportedly found near the Algerian border, November 2015.

Physical characteristics: Single stone with no fusion crust. Saw-cut and broken surfaces show a light gray, very fine-grained texture, with sparse small feldspar fragments ~2 mm, and scattered opaques.

Petrography: (C. Agee, UNM) This meteorite is an equilibrated, possibly recrystallized, feldspathic breccia. Most olivines and pyroxenes are very fine grained, 5-10 μm, with a few up to 200 μm, poikiolitically enclosed in much larger plagioclase grains.

Geochemistry: (C. Agee and M. Spilde, UNM) Olivine Fa_24.4±0.4, Fe/Mn=106±8, n=12; pigeonite Fs_20.6±1.1Wo_7.9±0.7, Fe/Mn=60±6, n=6; plagioclase An_93.3±3.4, n=6.

Classification: Lunar feldspathic breccia, granulitic.

Specimens: 12.2 g including a probe mount on deposit at UNM, DPitt holds the main mass.

Randy Says…

I have not studied NWA 10713.

More Information

Meteoritical Bulletin Database

NWA 10713