Northwest Africa 11046 (NWA 11046)

(Northwest Africa)

Purchased: 2016

Classification: HED achondrite (Eucrite, melt breccia)

History: One stone weighing 182.1 g was found by a meteorite prospector in Morocco. Thomas Webb acquired the sample from a meteorite prospector in 2016.

Physical characteristics: Sample is an irregularly shaped fragment that contains a dark brown patina with circular depressions not resembling regmaglypts. The interior surface is dark green and displays a clastic texture composed of lithic and mineral fragments.

Petrography: (A. Love, App) Sample is a breccia composed of clasts of cumulate and basaltic eucrites and associated debris of mineral fragments hosted in a quenched melt matrix. Cumulate clasts show incomplete recrystallization textures composed of inverted host Opx with augite exsolution lamellae containing rims of very fine-grained polygonal subgrains of pigeonite. Basalt has a subophitic texture with zoned pigeonite cores with subcalcic augite rims. Accessory minerals are: Si polymorphs, chromite, ilmenite and rare zircon.

Geochemistry: (A. Love, App) Low-Ca pyroxene Fs_62.0±2.8Wo_3.4±1.2 (Fs_57.1-65.8Wo_1.6-5.2, FeO/MnO=31.5-32.4, N=13); Pigeonite host Fs_57.2±5.5Wo_11.5±5 (Fs_48.1-71.4Wo_5.6-22.5, Fe/Mn=28.4-35.6, N=14); high-Ca pyroxene exsolution lamellae Fs_29.1±2.0Wo_42.6±2.6 (Fs_13.6-41.6Wo_22.5-44.9, FeO/MnO=28.0-32.4, N=13); plagioclase An_90.5±1.5Or_0.5±0.2 (An_87.2-92.1, N=5).

Classification: HED achondrite (eucrite, melt breccia)

Specimens: Webb holds the main mass. A polished thin section and 3 slices weighing 20.70 g are on deposit at App.