Lunar Meteorite: Northwest Africa 14088

Northwest Africa 14088 (NWA 14088)

Mali
Find: 2019; purchase: 2021 January
Mass: 2702 g (1 piece)

Classification: Lunar meteorite (troctolitic anorthosite)

History: Reportedly found in 2019 in the vicinity of Taoudenni, Mali. Purchased by Jay Piatek from a meteorite dealer in January 2021.

Physical characteristics: Single, flight-oriented stone, with fluted regmaglypts. The stone appears to have been partially buried for some time in the desert as approximately half of the it has sandblasted smooth dark fusion crust while the other half has fresher, greenish fusion crust with some caliche coating. A broken surface on the deposit sample reveals a white to light-gray interior with numerous dark colored glassy melt veins.

Petrography: (C. Agee, UNM) This meteorite is a fine-grained anorthositic troctolite (Prinz and Keil, 1977) with plagioclase (~75%), olivine (~15%), and pigeonite (~10%) as dominant silicate phases. There are numerous shock melt veins present, most with abundant vesicles.

Geochemistry: (A. Ross, UNM) Plagioclase An_96.5±0.8Ab_3.5±0.8Or_0.0±0.0, n=4; olivine Fa_28.8±3.5, Fe/Mn=94±8, n=6; pigeonite Fs_22.9±1.5Wo_13.3±2.9, Fe/Mn=50±6, n=5; augite Fs_13.3Wo_38.7, Fe/Mn=43, n=1; shock melt (20 μm defocused electron beam, proxy for bulk meteorite composition): SiO₂=43.9±0.2, TiO₂=0.16±0.01, Al₂O₃=30.2±0.4, Cr₂O₃=0.07±0.01, MgO=4.6±0.3, FeO=3.8±0.2, MnO=0.04±0.01, CaO=16.9±0.2, NiO=0.02±0.03, Na₂O=0.39±0.01, K₂O=0.03±0.00 (all wt%), Fe/Mn=103±20, n=3.

Classification: Lunar (troctolitic anorthosite) based on Stöffler et al. (1980).

Specimens: 45.1 g on deposit at UNM, Jay Piatek holds the main mass.

Stöffler D., Knöll H.-D., Marvin U.B., Simonds C.H., and Warren, P.H. (1980) Recommended classification and nomenclature of lunar highland rocks – A committee report. In: Conference on the Lunar Highlands Crust, Houston, Tex., November 14-16, 1979, Proceedings. (A81-26201 10-91) New York and Oxford, Pergamon Press, 1980, p. 51-70. (link)

Randy Says…

I have not studied NWA 14088. It has several characteristics of NWA 5744 clan, but it is more feldspathic and the olivine is not as forsteritic.

More Information

Meteoritical Bulletin Database

NWA 14088