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 (xHupé) 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 δ¹⁸O = +5.83, 5.96, δ¹⁷O = +3.06, 3.10, Δ¹⁷O = -0.03, -0.05 per mil, respectively.   Specimens: type specimens, 19.5 g, two polished thin sections, and one polished mount, UWS; main mass, xHupé.