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Northwest Africa 12380
Basic information Name: Northwest Africa 12380
     This is an OFFICIAL meteorite name.
Abbreviation: NWA 12380
Observed fall: No
Year found: 2017
Country: (Northwest Africa)
Mass:help 118.2 g
Classification
  history:
Meteoritical Bulletin:  MB 108  (2020)  L3
Recommended:  L3    [explanation]

This is 1 of 824 approved meteorites (plus 1 unapproved name) classified as L3.   [show all]
Search for other: L chondrites, L chondrites (type 3), Ordinary chondrites, and Ordinary chondrites (type 3)
Comments: Approved 14 Jan 2019
Writeuphelp
Writeup from MB 108:

Northwest Africa 12380 (NWA 12380)

(Northwest Africa)

Purchased: 2017

Classification: Ordinary chondrite (L3)

History: Specimen was purchased in Morocco in late 2017 by Brahim Tahiri and brought to Sean Tutorow before the 2018 Tucson Gem Show.

Physical characteristics: Physical Characteristics: Brownish and yellow-brown weathering patina occurs on rough exterior surfaces. Fractures filled with a yellow-white precipitate are visible cutting across the hand specimen. Interior is brown with crisply defined chondrules, and contains discreet light and dark colored clasts.

Petrography: (M. Hutson and A. Ruzicka, Cascadia) The host meteorite consists of sharply defined chondrules, chondrule fragments, and light-colored clasts up to 3 mm across set in a matrix comprised of angular fragments. Chondrules range in size from 0.14 to 2.5 mm, with a mean diameter of 0.74 mm (N=129). A single large (1 cm × 1 cm) dark clast that has a sharp contact with the host consists of well-defined chondrules (diameter 0.3-2.1 mm range, 0.83 mm mean, N=48) in an opaque matrix consisting of fine-grained material of differing texture and composition than the meteorite host. Two coarse-grained light colored clasts were examined in detail. One clast (approximately 2 × 3 mm in thin section) consists of a single large normally-zoned olivine grain approximately 2.5 mm long surrounded by smaller low-Ca pyroxene grains with high-Ca pyroxene overgrowths set in a feldspathic mesostasis. The other light-colored clast (approximately 1.3 × 1.5 mm in thin section) consists of coarse (up to 0.5 mm) twinned laths of low-Ca pyroxene poikilitically enclosing a few small olivine grains. In the meteorite roughly 80-90% of the opaque minerals have been replaced by Fe-hydroxides. A large vein of calcite cross-cuts the meteorite host but does not penetrate the dark clast.

Geochemistry: Mineral Compositions and Geochemistry: Olivine (host Fa22.8±10.8, N=83; dark clast Fa16.5±9.4, N=56; coarse olivine clast Fa17.3±2.2, N=20), low-Ca pyroxene (host Fs12.3±8.7Wo1.1±1.1, N= 45; dark clast Fs10.0±7.8Wo1.2±1.4, N=31; coarse olivine clast Fs17.3±2.2Wo2.0±0.7, N=19; twinned pyroxene clast Fs26.7±1.4Wo1.5±0.5, N=10). Cr2O3 wt% in olivine (host 0.07±0.10, N=56; dark clast 0.14±0.08, N=40).

Classification: Ordinary chondrite L3. L group rather than LL based on chondrule diameter. Estimated subtype ~3.5 based on Fa statistics.

Specimens: Cascadia holds 21.4 g in two pieces, in addition to three polished thin sections and three mounted butts. Main mass held by Sean Tutorow.

Data from:
  MB108
  Table 0
  Line 0:
Place of purchase:Morocco
Date:P 2017
Mass (g):118.18
Pieces:1
Class:L3
Shock stage:S2
Weathering grade:W3
Fayalite (mol%):22.8±10.8
Ferrosilite (mol%):12.3±8.7
Wollastonite (mol%):1.1±1.1
Classifier:M. Hutson and A. Ruzicka, Cascadia
Type spec mass (g):21.4
Type spec location:Cascadia
Main mass:S. Tutorow
Comments:Lab number CML 1004; Field number G717; submitted by A. Ruzicka
Institutions
   and collections
Cascadia: Cascadia Meteorite Laboratory, Portland State University, Department of Geology, Room 17 Cramer Hall, 1721 SW Broadway, Portland, OR 97201, United States; Website (institutional address; updated 28 Oct 2011)
Catalogs:
References: Published in Meteoritical Bulletin, no. 108 (2020) Meteorit. Planet. Sci. 55, 1146-1150
Find references in NASA ADS:
Find references in Google Scholar:
Geography: 
Coordinates:Unknown.

Statistics:
     This is 1 of 9429 approved meteorites from (Northwest Africa) (plus 1876 unapproved names)

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