Lunar Meteorite: Northwest Africa 12384

from The Meteoritical Bulletin, No. 108

Northwest Africa 12384 (NWA 12384)

(Northwestern Africa)
Purchase: November 2018
Mass: 244 g (2 pieces)

Lunar meteorite (basaltic breccia)

History: Purchased in Agadir, Morocco, in November 2018 by Aziz Habibi.

Physical characteristics: Two dense stones (total 244 g) coated by a thin, dark brown patina, but exhibiting a very fresh, gray interior with some visible basaltic clasts.

Petrography: (P. Carpenter, WUSL and A. Irving, UWS) The specimen is a breccia consisting of rounded mare basalt clasts with intersertal texture set in a matrix of related crystalline debris. Major mineral phases are olivine, pigeonite (some zoned to ferropigeonite) and anorthite with accessory ilmenite, merrillite, fluorapatite, troilite, zirconolite, tranquillityite and FeNi metal. The basalt clasts also contain K-rich mesostasis. A fine grained vesicular shock vein crosscuts the studied sample.

Geochemistry: Olivine in breccia matrix (Fa_30.0-50.4, FeO/MnO = 93-113, N = 6), pigeonite in breccia matrix (Fs_30.6-31.8Wo_10.4-22.7, FeO/MnO = 54-58, N = 2), pigeonite in basalt clast (cores Fs_28.9-29.4Wo_7.9-8.4, FeO/MnO = 50-56, N = 3; rims Fs_44.8-79.6Wo_16.3-20.4, FeO/MnO = 59-88, N = 3), subcalcic augite in breccia matrix (Fs_24.6Wo_31.5, FeO/MnO = 59), plagioclase in breccia matrix (An_81.1-95.6Or_1.1-0.1, N = 2), plagioclase in basalt clast (An_82.3-89.7Or_0.7-0.4, N = 4).

Classification: Lunar (mare basalt breccia).

Randy Says…

I have not studied NWA 12384. The petrography and composition are not consistent with it being a NWA 4884 or NWA 7611-clan pair (Carpenter et al., 2019b; Yen et al., 2020), despite it being a basaltic breccia.

More Information

Meteoritical Bulletin Database

NWA 12384

References

Carpenter P. K., Jolliff B. L., Korotev R. L., Tepper J. H., Irving A. J., and Hahn Jr T.M. (2019a) Quantitative EPMA compositional mapping of lunar mare basalt breccia Northwest Africa 12384. 50th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, abstract no. 2148.

Carpenter P. K., Jolliff B. L., Korotev R. L., Tepper J. H., Irving A. J., and Labenne L. (2019b) Petrology and bulk composition of lunar mare basalt breccia Northwest Africa 12384. 50th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, abstract no. 2125.

Yen C. J.-K., Carpenter P. K., Irving A. J., and Jolliff B. L. (2020) Igneous processes on the Moon as seen in Northwest Africa 12384: A lunar mare basalt breccia puzzle. 51st Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, abstract no. 2804.