Northwest Africa 14324 (NWA 14324)

(Northwest Africa)

Purchased: May, 2021

Classification: HED achondrite (Eucrite, melt breccia)

History: The meteorite was initially purchased from a group of meteorites hunters in Nouadhibou, Mauritania, in May 2021 and donated to MNB by Mr. Salamu Ali.

Physical characteristics: Small, dark greenish fragment without fusion crust. The interior is grayish.

Petrography: The meteorite is a melt breccia composed of up to 4 mm sized coarse-grained basaltic and gabbroic clasts and up to 1 mm sized minerals fragments set into fine-grained clastic, often shock melted matrix. Main minerals are exsolved pyroxenes and calcic plagioclase. Melt regions appear glassy with abundant schlieren and rounded to subrounded entrained mineral fragments showing resorption textures. Minor phases include silica, Ti-bearing chromite, ilmenite, FeS, and metallic iron. The meteorite contains secondary barite and calcite-filled cracks.

Geochemistry: low-Ca pyroxene: Fs_59.7±0.7Wo_4.4±0.7 (Fs_57.9-60.3Wo_3.9-6.4, n=9, FeO/MnO=28-31); Ca-pyroxene: Fs_31.2±0.4Wo_38.9±0.5 (Fs_30.7-31.8Wo_38.0-39.7, n=11, FeO/MnO=28-33); calcic plagioclase: An_89.6±1.0 (An_88.0-91.2, n=13)