Lunar Meteorite: Northwest Africa 15686

from The Meteoritical Bulletin, No. 112

Northwest Africa 15686 (NWA 15686)

(Northwestern Africa)
Purchased: 2022
Mass: 80.2 g (1 piece)

Lunar meteorite (feldspathic breccia)

History: Shun-Chung Yang (S-R Meteorites) purchased an 80.2g stone Youssef Bennani in Guelmim, Morocco, in 2022.

Physical Characteristics: Type specimen is an irregular shaped sliced chunk with a thin discontinuous layer of dark green fusion crust. The cut faces show the interior has a matrix-supported brecciated texture.

Petrography: Description and classification (A. Love, App) Sample is a breccia composed of lithic fragments set within a grain-supported host of mineral debris, glassy melt clasts, agglutinates and rare glass beads. Lithic fragments are basalt, coarse-grained gabbro, anorthosite and shock-melted brecciated clasts. Some regions of sample show micro-vesicular matrix. Minerals clasts are dominated by clinopyroxene, plagioclase and olivine. Additional minerals are: chromite, FeNi grains, troilite, chromite and apatite, ilmenite and a Si polymorph.

Geochemistry: (A. Love, App) Olivine (Fa_42.6±9.1, Fe/Mn=102.9±5.4, n=12); pigeonite (Fs_34.4±11.0Wo_18.1±7.9, Fe/Mn=51.6±17.2 n=17); high-Ca pyroxene (Fs_37.3±11.1Wo_20.4±9.7, Fe/Mn=63.1±9.6, n=5); plagioclase (An_95.2±1.6Or_0.2±0.2, n=14).

Classification: Lunar achondrite (feldspathic breccia A-S2 low weathering). Based on textures and mineral compositions, sample is a regolithic feldspathic breccia.

Specimens: Shun-Chung Yang (S-R meteorites) holds the main mass. A polished thin section and a crusted sliced individual have a total mass of 16.2 g.

Randy Says…

I have not studied Northwest Africa 15686.

More Information

Meteoritical Bulletin Database

NWA 15686