from The
Meteoritical Bulletin, no. 89, Meteoritics & Planetary Science
40, A201-A263 (2005)
Northwest Africa 3136
Algeria or Morocco
Purchased 2004 April
Lunar meteorite (basaltic regolith breccia)
An oriented 95.1 g shield-shaped stone with partial thin, pale brown fusion
crust found in Algeria or Morocco was purchased in Tagounite by a Moroccan
dealer for A. and G. Hupé (Hupé) in 2004 April. The
specimen has a thin, dark weathering varnish, but the interior is a very
fresh, black, hard, vitreous-looking rock with small white to yellowish
clasts. Classification and mineralogy (S. Kuehner and A. Irving, UWS):
Polymict breccia consisting of mineral and lithic clasts derived predominantly
from mare basalt and mare microgabbro lithologies, and additionally some
highlands clasts, in a very fine grained, mostly crystalline and partly
vitreous, vesicular matrix. Mineral clasts include calcic plagioclase (An86-97),
pyroxenes (orthopyroxene, ferropigeonite, ferrosilite, pyroxferroite; FeO/MnO
= 68.9-75.8), olivine (mostly Fa30-43, but ranging to nearly
pure fayalite; FeO/MnO = 81.9-94.2), ilmenite, Ni-poor Fe metal, troilite,
Cr-bearing ulvöspinel, and rare pentlandite, baddeleyite, and a Ce-Ca-Fe-bearing,
Zr-rich titanate (probably zirconolite). A further description can be found
in (Kuehner et al., 2005). Bulk compositions (R. Korotev, WUSL):
INAA of several subsamples indicate that this specimen is dominated by mare
components with ~20% lunar highland components (Korotev and Irving, 2005).
Oxygen isotopes (D. Rumble, CIW): analyses of two whole rock fragments
by laser fluorination gave d18O = +5.83‰, 5.96‰,
d17O = +3.06‰, 3.10‰, D17O = -0.03‰,
-0.05‰, respectively. Specimens: type specimens, 19.5 g, two polished
thin sections, and one polished mount, UWS; main mass, Hupé.
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