Lunar Meteorite: Northwest Africa 12393

from The Meteoritical Bulletin, No. 108

Northwest Africa 12393 (NWA 12393)

(northwestern Africa)
Purchased: 2016
Mass: 1267.1 g (1 piece)

Lunar Meteorite (olivine gabbronorite breccia)

History: Purchased from Ahmad Buraga in Morocco, February 22, 2016.

Physical characteristics: Single stone, lacking fusion crust. Saw cut reveals a breccia of dark-brown and dark-green clasts with a few, scattered, light-colored, feldspathic fragments.

Petrography: (C. Agee, UNM) This meteorite is a chemically equilibrated, fragmental breccia with olivine, augite, low-Ca pyroxene, anorthitic plagioclase, and ubiquitous minor chromite. Following lunar petrologic nomenclature this is an olivine gabbronorite.

Geochemistry: (C. Agee, UNM) Olivine Fa _27.2±2.9, n=12; augite Fs_14.0±1.4Wo_39.8±1.8, Fe/Mn=50±7, n=4; low-Ca pyroxene Fs_22.5±1.9Wo_5.9±2.1, Fe/Mn=52±3, n=8; plagioclase An_96.3±0.9Ab_3.5±0.9Or_0.2±0.0, n=7.

Classification: Lunar (olivine gabbronorite)

Specimens: 20.4 g including a probe mount on deposit at UNM, Jay Piatek holds the main mass.

Randy Says…

I have not studied Northwest Africa 12393. Despite being a gabbronorite, I suspect that it is not related to the NWA 773 clan because the olivine is more forsteritic and the plagioclase is more anorthitic.

More Information

Meteoritical Bulletin Database

NWA 12393