Lunar Meteorite: Northwest Africa 16292
| from The Meteoritical Bulletin, No. 112 Northwest Africa 16292 (NWA 16292)(Northwestern Africa) Lunar meteorite (melt breccia) History: Purchased from Bachir Salek by Mark Lyon in 2022. Physical Characteristics: Polished slice 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, were detected. Geochemistry: (A. Ross, UNM) Olivine Fa27.0±4.7, Fe/Mn=95±6, n=5; pigeonite Fs32.3±11.2Wo6.6±4.2, Fe/Mn=58±5, n=4; augite Fs15.8±5.7Wo44.7±2.5, Fe/Mn=50±10, n=2; plagioclase An96.2±1.0, n=4. Classification: Lunar (anorthositic gabbronorite melt breccia), nomenclature based on Stöffler et al. (1980). Specimens: 42.8 g on deposit at UNM, Mark Lyon holds the main mass. |
| Randy Says… I have not studied Northwest Africa 16292. |
More InformationMeteoritical Bulletin Database NWA 16292 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. |