Name: Queen Alexandra Range 97002 This is an OFFICIAL meteorite name. Abbreviation: QUE 97002 Observed fall: No Year found: 1997 Country: Antarctica [Collected by US Antarctic Search for Meteorites program (ANSMET)] Mass: 1384 g
Macroscopic Description: Kathleen McBride
50% of the exterior of this achondrite has brown/black fusion crust with small glassy patches. Interior is a breccia, a light fine grained matrix with numerous clasts and an oxidation rind. Clasts are mostly white, elongated and angular. Angular dark gray clasts and black subrounded to angular clasts are visible. Some rusty patches are present.
Thin Section (,5) Description: Tim McCoy
The section is a microbreccia of coarse-grained clasts dominated by pyroxene with lesser plagioclase and fine-grained basaltic clasts. Individual clasts range up to 4 mm across. Shock effects are extensive. Most of the pyroxene is low-Ca with compositions ranging from Fs54Wo2 to Fs60Wo2. One augite grain of Fs21Wo44 was analyzed. Plagioclase ranges from An85-94. The Fe/Mn ratio in pyroxene is about 30. The meteorite is a howardite.
50% of the exterior of this achondrite has brown/black fusion crust with small glassy patches. Interior is a breccia, a light fine grained matrix with numerous clasts and an oxidation rind. Clasts are mostly white, elongated and angular. Angular dark gray clasts and black subrounded to angular clasts are visible. Some rusty patches are present.
Thin Section Description (,5) - Tim McCoy
The section is a microbreccia of coarse-grained clasts dominated by pyroxene with lesser plagioclase and fine-grained basaltic clasts. Individual clasts range up to 4 mm across. Shock effects are extensive. Most of the pyroxene is low-Ca with compositions ranging from Fs54Wo2 to Fs60Wo2. One augite grain of Fs21Wo44 was analyzed. Plagioclase ranges from An85-94. The Fe/Mn ratio in pyroxene is about 30. The meteorite is a howardite.
Reclassification Notes (36,2)
QUE 97002, initially classified as a howardite, (Antarctic Meteorite Newsletter 21(2), page 18, 1998), is a fragmental breccia with a matrix composed mostly of ferroan low-Ca pyroxene and plagioclase, and containing mm-sized mafic clasts with subophitic/ophitic textures. The most magnesian pyroxene given in the initial description has a composition of Wo2En44Fs54, within the range of cumulate eucrites. The most magnesian pyroxene in section ,34 is Wo5.4En62.0Fs32.6 which is just within the ranges of the most ferroan diogenites and the most magnesian cumulate eucrites. Other coarse pyroxene fragments have compositions of Wo16.5-22.0En30.5-35.1Fs46.5-48.8, within the ranges of basaltic eucrites. Five whole rock samples have compositions consistent with mixtures of >90 wt% basaltic eucrite. QUE 97002 is a polymict eucrite.
1384 g
