Northwest Africa 11788 (NWA 11788)

Mali

Purchased: 2017

Classification: Lunar meteorite (feldspathic breccia)

History: Purchased in Mali by Dustin Dickens from anonymous meteorite hunter.

Physical characteristics: Many dark visually identical appearing pieces, with masses ranging from ~2 kg to many sub-g fragments, showing no fusion crust. Saw cut reveals a finely fragmental breccia with white feldspathic clasts set in a dark gray ground mass with metal flecks and minor vesiculation appearing throughout.

Petrography: (C. Agee, UNM) This meteorite is a breccia of fragmental pyroxene, olivine, plagioclase grains. There are domains that are fine-grained and cataclastic with shock melt and vesicles.

Geochemistry: (C. Agee, UNM) olivine Fa: 31.2±9.4, Fe/Mn=95±7, n=12; clinopyroxene Fs_36.0±10.0Wo_22.2±8.8, Fe/Mn=60±5, n=12; plagioclase An_93.0±1.8, n=7; Shock melt (20 _m defocused electron beam, proxy for bulk meteorite composition): SiO₂=43.2±1.7, TiO₂=0.46±0.20, Al₂O₃=24.2±3.6, Cr₂O₃=0.23±0.08, MgO=7.8±1.4, FeO=8.0±3.2, MnO=0.10±0.05, CaO=14.2±1.4, Na₂O=0.35±0.23, K₂O=0.08±0.05 (all wt%), n=4.

Classification: Lunar feldspathic breccia

Specimens: 28.9 g including a probe mount on deposit at UNM, Dustin Dickens holds the main mass.