Lunar Meteorite: Talhat Lihoudi

Talhat Lihoudi in the field.  Photo credit: Ahmad Bouragaa
Three views of Talhat Lihoudi in the lab. Photo credit: Scott Kuehner
Lab sample of Talhat Lihoudi.  Photo credit: Randy Korotev

from The Meteoritical Bulletin, No. 106

Talhat Lihoudi

Rio de Oro, Western Sahara
Find: 2016 August|
Mass: 61.5 g (1 piece)

Lunar Meteorite (feldspathic breccia)

History: Found in Morocco in August 2016 and purchased by Ben Hoefnagels in October 2016 from a dealer in Ouarzazate, Morocco.

Physical characteristics: A single gray stone (61.5 g) exhibiting small whitish clasts in a darker matrix.

Petrography: (A. Irving and S. Kuehner, UWS) Breccia composed of angular mineral clasts of anorthite, olivine, orthopyroxene, pigeonitic pyroxene, augite, Al-chromite, ilmenite, Cr-pleonaste and troilite in a fine grained partly vesicular matrix of the same minerals plus minor secondary barite, calcite and gypsum.

Geochemistry: Olivine (Fa10.9-86.7, FeO/MnO = 64-90, N = 4), low-Ca pyroxene (Fs18.9-45.4Wo5.4-2.9, FeO/MnO = 41-56, N = 3), augite (Fs14.0-19.1Wo42.7-41.3, FeO/MnO = 35-46, N = 3), anorthite (An96.5Or0.3), labradorite (An56.4Or3.1). Bulk composition (R. Korotev, WUSL) INAA of subsamples gave the following mean abundances (in wt.%) FeO 5.4, Na2O 0.38; (in ppm) Sc 10.4, Ni 130, La 5.4, Sm 2.44, Eu 0.85, Yb 1.9, Lu 0.27, Hf 2.0, Th 1.1.

Classification: Lunar (feldspathic regolith breccia).

Specimens: 12.87 g including one polished slice at UWB; main polished endcut mass with Mr. B. Hoefnagels.

Randy Says…

Compositionally, Talhat Lihoudi is a KREEP-bearing feldspathic lunar meteorite.

More Information

Meteoritical Bulletin Database

Talhat Lihoudi

References

Korotev R. L. and Irving A. J. (2021) Lunar meteorites from northern Africa. Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 206–240.

Lunar Meteorites
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List – Al2O3 Order