| Price : 3100 € |
Arabian Peninsula 007 (AP 007)
Saudi Arabia
Purchased: 2017 Nov
Classification: Lunar (frag. breccia)
History: A single weathered stone lacking a fusion crust was found in 2015 by a pair of local meteorite hunters in the Al Jouf region of Saudi Arabia. Purchased by Dustin Dickens in November 2017 while on expedition in the region.
Physical characteristics: Dark, sand-blasted exterior. Dark homogeneous groundmass with sub-mm sized clasts. Mm-width melt veins visible across exterior. No fusion crust.
Petrography: (T. S. Hayden, M. Anand, OU) The meteorite is a clast-rich fragmental breccia containing numerous mineral and lithic fragments embedded in a fine-grained matrix. The lithic clast population consists primarily of basaltic clasts, dominated by Ca-rich pyroxene and plagioclase and olivine. There is a large (~2.3mm) granulite clast which appears to be of the ferroan anorthosite suite, with accessory apatite and ulv_spinel. The size range of the lithic clasts is 0.24-3.41mm. Mineral clasts and fragments are mainly pyroxene, olivine, plagioclase and chromite. Some regolith material (vesicular) present also.
Geochemistry: Mineral composition and Geochemistry: (T. S. Hayden, M. Anand, OU) Feldspar (An96.4±0.8Ab3.5±0.8, N = 79), Pigeonite (Fs32.1±3.2Wo13.6±3.2, Fe/Mn=59.4±4, N=41), Augite (Fs25.8±5.6Wo28.6±7.5, Fe/Mn=57.1±6.8, N=18), Olivine (Fa41.6±9.8, Fe/Mn=103.3±10, N=116). O isotopes (measured at OU): δ17O = 3.484‰, δ18O = 6.646‰, Δ17O=-0.002‰ (linearized using a slope of 0.5247).
Classification: Lunar fragmental regolith breccia
