Calcalong Creek

Lunar Meteorite: Calcalong Creek

Australia

Calcalong Creek was the first lunar meteorite to be found outside of Antarctica and is still the only one to have come from Australia. This photo shows a cross section through the whole stone.

Image courtesy of Dave Kring.

A closeup of a sawn slice, probably about 1 cm in longest dimension. Note the vesicular fusion crust along the upper left edge. The meteorite is a regolith breccia. Note that the clasts (1) come in all sizes and a variety of gray shades, (2) they are not rounded like beach pebbles, and (3) there is no layering.

Photo courtesy of Jim Strope.

Photomicrograph of a thin section (field of view: 1.1 cm across). Most of the clasts are grains of plagioclase and pyroxene.

Photo courtesy of Dolores Hill (figure 1a from Hill & Boynton, 2003). Click on image for enlargement.


Views of two sides of a small sample of Calcalong Creek. The vesicular fusion crust is visible in the photo on the right. The tick marks are spaced at 1-mm intervals. Click on image for enlargement. Photos by Randy Korotev.

from the Meteoritical Bulletin, no. 71, Meteoritics 26, 255-262 (1991)

Wiluna District, Western Australia, Australia
Found after 1960

Stone. Lunar meteorite A stone of 19 g was found by an Aborigine meteorite hunter in the Millbillillie strewnfield. It has a complete fusion crust, the interior shows a microbreccia with white angular clasts in a dark matrix (impact melt breccia, calculated from the bulk analysis: 50% anorthosite, 20% KREEP, 15% Luna- 16 type low-Ti mare basalt and 15% Sc-Cr-V components). Information and analysis, Fe/Mn = 73-78, KREEP pattern of REE, Dolores H. Hill, Lunar Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson AZ 85726, USA. See also, D. H. Hill, W. V. Boynton and R. A. Haag, Nature, 1991, in press. The main mass is with Robert Haag, P. O. Box 27527, Tucson, AZ 85726, USA.

More Information

Meteoritical Bulletin Database

Calcalong Creek

References

Cohen B. A., Swindle T. D., Kring D. A., and Olson E. K. (2005) Geochemistry and ⁴⁰Ar-³⁹Ar geochronology of impact-melt clasts in lunar meteorites Dar al Gani 262 and Calcalong Creek (abstract). In Lunar and Planetary Science XXXVI, abstract no. 1481, 36th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Houston.

Hill D. H. and Boynton W. V. (2003) Chemistry of the Calcalong Creek lunar meteorite and its relationship to lunar terranes. Meteoritics & Planetary Science 38, 595–626.

Hill D. H., Boynton W. V., and Haag R. A. (1991) A lunar meteorite found outside the Antarctic, Nature 352, 614-617.

Hill D. H., Marvin U. B., and Boynton W. V. (1995) Clasts from the Calcalong Creek lunar meteorite (abstract). Lunar and Planetary Science 26, p. 605-606, Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston.

Korotev R. L. (2005) Lunar geochemistry as told by lunar meteorites. Chemie der Erde 65, 297–346.

Korotev R. L., Irving A. J., and Bunch T. E. (2008) Keeping up with the lunar meteorites – 2008 (abstract). In Lunar and Planetary Science XXXIX, abstract no. 1209, 39th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Houston.

Kuehner S. M., Irving A. J., Korotev R. L., Hupé G. M., and Ralew S. (2007) Zircon-baddeleyite-bearing silica+K-feldspar granophyric clasts in KREEPrich lunar breccias Northwest Africa 4472 and 4485 (abstract). In Lunar and Planetary Science XXXVIII, abstract no. 1516, 38th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Houston.

Marvin U. B. and Holmberg B. B. (1992) Highland and mare components in the Calcalong Creek lunar meteorite (abstract), Lunar and Planetary Science 23, p. 849-850, Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston.

Nishiizumi K., Arnold J. R., Caffee M. W., Finkel R. C., Southon J., and Reedy R. C. (1991) Cosmic ray exposure histories of lunar meteorites Asuka 881757, Yamato 793169, and Calcalong Creek (abstract) Papers Presented to the 17th Symposium on Antarctic Meteorites, August 19-21, Tokyo, Natl. Inst. Polar Res., 129-132.

Swindle T. D., Burkland M. K., and Grier J. A. (1995) Noble gases in the lunar meteorites Calcalong Creek and Queen Alexandra Range 93069 (abstract), Meteoritics 30, 584-585.

Chemical Classification

Overview | Calcalong Creek

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Prepared by:

Randy L. Korotev

Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences
Washington University in St. Louis

Please don't contact me about the meteorite you think you’ve found until you read this and this.

e-mail: korotev@wustl.edu

Last revised: 08-Feb-2008