Pendants Center Stone: Lunar Meteorite - Real Piece of the Moon. A Feldspathic Lunar Breccia Meteorite
Pendant Setting: Sterling Silver
Description: Unique Moon Pendant with center stone fashioned from a piece of the Moon. Made from the beautiful lunar meteorite TOUAT 005 and set in Sterling Silver.
Dimensions not including bail: Approximately 11.05 mm x 9.00 mm x 5.40 mm
Dimensions including bail: Approximately 18.10 mm x 9.00 mm x 5.40 mm
Meteorite Type: Lunar Feldspathic Breccia
Official Name: TOUAT 005
Year Found: 2020
Country of Origin: Algeria
Parent body: The Moon - this is material was ejected from our Moon when it was hit by another meteorite and became a meteorite itself when it hit the Earth. It is an authenticated piece of the Moon.
This beautiful moon pendant has been hand crafted and assembled in the US by AZ based artisan Josh Eisler. Each pendant has a unique center stone and it is a completely unique part of the Moon. No two pendants are exactly alike. The center stone for this pendant was ejected from the Moon and recovered by nomads in the Algerian desert and classified by the Institute of Meteoritics at the University of Mexico. The center stone has been free-hand shaped to find the best qualities in each area of the stone, and making every piece totally unique. The pendant is set in Sterling Silver.
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.
