Lunar Meteorite: Northwest Africa 16282
| from The Meteoritical Bulletin, No. 112 Northwest Africa 16282 (NWA 16282)(Northwestern Africa) Lunar meteorite (melt breccia) History: Purchased from Bachir Salek by Fossil Realm Inc. in 2023. Physical Characteristics: Single roughly spheroidal stone. Exterior is very dark in color with irregular to smooth, sandblasted, vesiculated fusion crust. Approximately half of the mass is coated with caliche owing to partial burial in the desert. Freshly chipped surface reveals the interior of this meteorite to be a breccia with scattered fragments of light-colored clasts set in a dark-gray to black cryptocrystalline matrix. Petrography: (C. Agee, UNM) Electron microprobe analysis and reflected light microscopy of a polished mount show this meteorite to be an anorthositic gabbronorite melt breccia consisting primarily of fine-grained pigeonite with lesser amounts of augite and olivine all of which are scattered and poikilitically enclosed in a dominant plagioclase-rich vesicular melt rock host. Minor amounts of ilmenite, troilite, Fe-metal (low Ni), and Ti-chromite, Al-spinel, and Cr-Ti spinel were detected. Classification: Lunar (anorthositic gabbronorite melt breccia), nomenclature based on Stöffler et al. (1980). Specimens: 24 g on deposit at UNM, Fossil Realm Inc. holds the main mass. |
| Randy Says… I have not studied Northwest Africa 16282. |
More InformationMeteoritical Bulletin Database NWA 16282 References Stöffler D., Knöll H.-D., Marvin U. B., Simonds C. H., and Warren P. H. (1980) Recommended classification and nomenclature of lunar highlands rocks-a committee report. In Proceedings Conf. Lunar Highlands Crust (eds. J. J. Papike and R. B. Merrill), 51-70, Pergamon Press. |