Northwest Africa 2727

Using micro-Raman spectrometry, electron microscopy, and SR-XRD techniques, a team of researchers discovered moganite, a monoclinic SiO₂ phase, coexisting with coesite and stishovite in the KREEP-like basaltic brecciated meteorite NWA 2727. The findings demonstrate that moganite in NWA 2727 is most likely to have been formed during lunar fluid activity on the sunlit surface and that the source fluid was probably cold-trapped as H₂O ice in the subsurface. The study also presented a possible formation process for lunar moganite and evaluated the bulk content, pH, distribution, and origin of the Moon’s subsurface H₂O.

Discovery of moganite in a lunar meteorite as a trace of H2O ice in the Moon’s regolith