Northwest Africa 10049 (NWA 10049)

(Northwest Africa)

Purchased: 2014

Classification: Lunar meteorite (feldspathic breccia)

History: Purchased by Eric Twelker from Habib Naji in Morocco, 2014.

Physical characteristics: Single stone. Saw cut shows white feldspathic clasts and a few dark colored clasts set in a dark gray matrix. There a few, very small, metal grains visible.

Petrography: (C. Agee, UNM) This meteorite is a fine-grained, lunar feldspathic regolith breccia with numerous agglutinates, shock melt zones and impact melt clasts present. Many of the agglutinates and melt veins are heavily vesiculated. There are also many fragmental feldspar grains and some microgabbros present, a few of these fragments are up to several mm in size. Accessory Fe-Ni metal, Fe-sulfide, chromite, and ilmenite are present. Weathering products iron oxide, barite, and calcite were detected.

Geochemistry: (C. Agee and N. Muttik, UNM) Olivine Fa_31.5±4.9, Fe/Mn=99±9, n=29; forsterite Fa_5.8, Fe/Mn=87, n=1; pigeonite Fs_26.6±5.5Wo_6.0±3.8, Fe/Mn=55±4, n=10; augite Fs_22.7±8.2Wo_33.1±6.9, Fe/Mn=52±8, n=14; anorthite plagioclase An_94.2±2.6Ab_5.4±2.5Or_0.3±0.2, n=10; labradorite plagioclase An_56.3Ab_37.1Or_6.6, n=1; Shock melt (20 μm defocused electron beam, proxy for bulk meteorite composition): SiO₂=44.5±0.8, TiO₂=0.25±0.08, Al₂O₃=31.3±1.9, Cr₂O₃=0.07±0.01, MgO=3.2±1.8, FeO=3.0±0.4, MnO=0.04±0.02, CaO=17.4±0.4, NiO=0.00±0.00, Na₂O=0.55±0.09, K₂O=0.07±0.01 (all wt%), n=3.

Classification: Lunar feldspathic regolith breccia

Specimens: 12.4 g including a probe mount on deposit at UNM, Twelker holds the main mass.