Lunar Meteorite: Rafsa 002

Meteorite Picture of the Day: Rafsa 002

from The Meteoritical Bulletin, No. 111

Rafsa 002

Algeria
Purchased: 2022
Mass: 176.1 g (1 piece)

Lunar meteorite (troctolite melt rock)

History: Found in Algeria and purchased by Ziyao Wang in January 2022 from a Moroccan dealer.

Physical Characteristics: A single gray stone (176.7 g) with a rough, weathered exterior. The fresh interior exhibits some diffuse, darker and lighter colored clasts within a dominant gray matrix.

Petrography: (A. Irving, UWS and P. Carpenter, WUSL) This specimen is a breccia composed of very fine grained melt rock clasts within a similar melt-textured, partly vesicular matrix. The mean grainsize is ~20 µm, with some olivine grains up to 100 µm. Composed predominantly of relatively magnesian olivine (some as zoned grains) and anorthite with subordinate pigeonite and subcalcic augite, plus accessory Cr-bearing pleonaste (some as zoned grains), troilite and low-Ti chromite.

Geochemistry: Olivine (Fa17.8-30.1, FeO/MnO = 82-99, N = 7), anorthite (An95.9-96.3Or0.2-0.1, N = 4), pigeonite (Fs18.7-25.1Wo11.3-14.9, FeO/MnO = 50-58, N = 2), subcalcic augite (Fs20.1-33.2Wo21.6-26.7, FeO/MnO = 38-60, N = 2), pleonaste (Mg0.77 Fe0.21 Cr 0.07 Al1.94 O4).

Classification: Lunar (troctolitic melt rock).

Specimens: 20.1 g including one polished thin section and one polished slice at UWB; remainder with WangZ.

Randy Says…

I have not studied Rafsa 002.

More Information

Meteoritical Bulletin Database

Rafsa 002