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Northwest Africa 16879
Basic information Name: Northwest Africa 16879
     This is an OFFICIAL meteorite name.
Abbreviation: NWA 16879
Observed fall: No
Year found: 2023
Country: (Northwest Africa)
Mass:help 88.3 g
Classification
  history:
Recommended:  Martian (shergottite)    [explanation]

This is 1 of 330 approved meteorites (plus 2 unapproved names) classified as Martian (shergottite).   [show all]
Search for other: Martian meteorites
Comments: Approved 13 Sep 2024
Writeuphelp
Writeup from MB 113:

Northwest Africa 16879 (NWA 16879)

(Northwest Africa)

Purchased: 2023 Jan

Classification: Martian meteorite (Shergottite)

History: Purchased by Eric Twelker in January 2023 from a dealer in Guelmim, Morocco.

Petrography: (A. Irving, UWS, and P. Carpenter, WUSL) The specimen has a relatively coarse grained intergranular texture and is composed predominantly of zoned, prismatic, simply-twinned grains of clinopyroxene (up to 3 mm long) and smaller laths of maskelynite (mean size ~ 1 mm). Accessory phases include merrillite, pyrrhotite, ulvöspinel, ilmenite and symplectitic intergrowths of fayalite+hedenbergite+silica polymorph (located at the margins of strongly zoned clinopyroxene grains). Small shock melt pockets containing "swirly" glass (pale clove-brown in thin section) are present, as well as some veinlets of secondary calcite and Fe oxides.

Geochemistry: Augite cores (Fs22.0-25.7Wo45.7-40.4, FeO/MnO = 24-28, N = 4), ferropigeonite rims (Fs52.9-74.4Wo8.2-18.9, FeO/MnO = 34-37, N = 4), subcalcic augite rim (Fs60.1Fs21.1, FeO/MnO = 35), maskelynite (An50.1-54.9Or2.6-1.0, N = 4), fayalite in symplectite (Fa90.1, FeO/MnO = 40), hedenbergite in symplectite (Fs53.5Wo31.9, FeO/MnO = 35).

Classification: Shergottite (gabbroic).

Specimens: 18.1 g including one polished thin section at UWB; remainder with Twelker.

Data from:
  MB113
  Table 0
  Line 0:
Place of purchase:Guelmim
Date:P 2023 Jan
Mass (g):88.3
Pieces:1
Class:Martian (shergottite)
Shock stage:high
Weathering grade:low
Fayalite (mol%):90.1
Ferrosilite (mol%):22.0-25.7; 52.9-64.9; 74.4
Wollastonite (mol%):45.7-40.4; 15.2-18.9; 8.2
Classifier:A. Irving, UWS, and P. Carpenter, WUSL
Type spec mass (g):18.1
Type spec location:UWB
Main mass:Twelker
Comments:Work name ET23-3; submitted by A. Irving
Institutions
   and collections		 UWS: University of Washington, Department of Earth and Space Sciences, 70 Johnson Hall, Seattle, WA 98195, United States (institutional address; updated 15 Jan 2012)
WUSL: Washington Univ., One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, United States (institutional address; updated 17 Oct 2011)
UWB: University of Washington, Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, Box 353010 Seattle, WA 98195, United States (institutional address; updated 9 Oct 2023)
Twelker: Eric Twelker, P.O. Box 844, Port Townsend, WA 98368, United States; Website (private address; updated 1 Dec 2014)
Catalogs:
References: Published in Meteoritical Bulletin, no. 113, in preparation (2024)
Find references in NASA ADS:
Find references in Google Scholar:
Geography: 
Coordinates:Unknown.

Statistics:
     This is 1 of 9927 approved meteorites from (Northwest Africa) (plus 1837 unapproved names)

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