Description: Authentic lunar meteorite in a limited edition double-sided color photo-display frame. This collection quality lunar meteorite is perfect for desk or cabinet display. A real piece of the Moon. Truly the gift of a lifetime. This is not a tiny spec that you can barely see. This is a lunar meteorite the size of a pebble ejected from our only natural satellite, and against all odds has made its way to you. This lunar specimen is large enough that you can see and appreciate it with the unaided eye. This specimen has a mass of 2.81 grams and is part of the group of lunar meteorites analyzed at the University of Mexicos Institute of Meteoritics and approved by the Meteoritical Societys Nomenclature Committee, and given the official name of TOUAT 005.
Type: Lunar Feldspathic Breccia
Touat 005 27.747222, -1.369722
Adrar, Algeria
Find: 2020
Classification: Lunar meteorite (feldspathic breccia)
History: These two stones were found by meteorite hunters driving off-road between Tabelbala, Algeria, and the Erg Chech 002 find locality. Nearest towns to this find are Adrar and Tamentit, Algeria.
Physical characteristics: Two stones, identical in appearance, (2035 and 1675 g) were found together. This is a fragmental breccia with white plagioclase megacrysts and lithic clasts set in a dark shocked matrix. Plagioclase megacrysts are up to two centimeters in length and are translucent in thinly sliced slabs. No fusion crust is present.
Petrography: (C. Agee, UNM) Electron microprobe analysis and imaging reveals a fragmental breccia with large, sometimes euhedral anorthite crystals (megacrysts). The megacrysts appear to be shock-mosaicized or recrystallized with a significant amount of dark and light inclusions present, some of the observed inclusion veining in the megacysts is possibly maskelynite. The compositions of the plagioclase megacrysts are slightly more anorthitic than the groundmass plagioclase fragments, although there is compositional overlap between the two that is within microprobe error. This is possibly a monomict breccia since the section analyzed had only one coherent population of pyroxenes and olivines that appear to be related by equilibrium igneous crystallization. The olivine and pyroxene compositions are similar to that in ferroan anorthosites. Shock melt veins with vesicles were observed. Minor opaque phases are ilmenite and chromite.
Geochemistry: (C. Agee, UNM) Plagioclase megacrysts An 97.2 0.7Ab 2.6 0.3Or 0.2 0.1, n=6; groundmass plagioclase An 96.5 0.3Ab 3.2 0.3Or 0.2 0.1, n=6; low-Ca pyroxene Fs 28.2 5.9Wo 5.6 3.1, Fe/Mn=59 6, n=6; augite Fs 18.7 0.4Wo 43.2 1.5, Fe/Mn=48 1, n=2; olivine Fa 36.7 10.1, Fe/Mn=95 3, n=9; shock melt vein SiO 2=43.6 0.4, Al 2O 3=31.1 0.8, FeO=3.7 0.6, MgO=3.3 0.5, MnO=0.05 0.02, CaO=17.3 0.1, Na 2O=0.32 0.05 all wt%, n=3.
Classification: Lunar feldspathic breccia with plagioclase megacrysts. Mafic minerals similar in composition to that present in ferroan anorthosites.
Specimens: 25.8 g on deposit at UNM, Mark Lyon holds the main masses.
