LUNAR ROCK - Northwest Africa 3163 LUNAR METEORITE

Northwest Africa 3163 Lunar Meteorite

Complete mass of NWA 3163.

Article about NWA 3163:
Hupé, G.M., (2006) Million Dollar Meteorites of 2005 (article). On Nature’s Vault, Inc. web site:
Click here to read about the discovery and importance of NWA 3163

Official Meteoritical Bulletin entry for Northwest Africa 3163:

Northwest Africa 3163
     Mauritania or Algeria
     Find: August 2005
     Achondrite (lunar, feldspathic granulitic impactite)

History: In August 2005, G. Hupé purchased a 1634 g stone from a Moroccan dealer in Ouarzazate.
Petrography and Geochemistry: (A. Irving and S. Kuehner, UWS) The exterior is almost completely coated by a thin, transparent, greenish fusion crust. The pale gray interior has multiple shock fractures (with very minor calcite coatings) and some thin glass veins. Poikiloblastic recrystallized breccia, with larger grains of plagioclase (~70 vol%) enclosing much smaller grains (less than 100 µm across) of pyroxenes (~20 vol%), olivine (~10 vol%), and accessory Ti-chromite (Cr/(Cr+Al) = 0.714–0.736; Mg/(Mg+Fe) = 0.121– 0.143; TiO₂ = 9.1–18.4 wt%), ilmenite, troilite, and metal (Ni = ~15 wt%). Anorthitic plagioclase (An_97.4–98.2) has been converted by shock almost entirely to maskelynite (although domains of birefringent, less-shocked feldspar remain). Pigeonitic pyroxene grains have very fine-scale exsolution lamellae of augite (Fs_14.5–16.1Wo_40.2–40.5; FeO/MnO = 41.7– 43.8) within orthopyroxene (Fs _32.0–33.9Wo_4.4–5.8; FeO/MnO = 55.5–61.2). Olivine (Fa_38.0–40.9; FeO/MnO = 91.7–110).
Classification: Achondrite (lunar, feldspathic granulitic impactite).
Specimens: A 20.1 g type specimen and one polished thin section are on deposit at UWS. GHupé holds the main mass.

Scientific abstracts and news regarding NWA 3163:

Korotev R. L., Irving A. J., and Bunch T. E.
(2012) Keeping Up With the Lunar Meteorites — 2012 (abstract).
In Lunar and Planetary Science XLIII, abstract no. 1152,
43rd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Houston.
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2012/pdf/1152.pdf

Shafer J. T., Brandon A. D., Lapen T. J., Peslier A. H., Irving A. J.
(2011) Trace element geochemistry of a lunar granulite: Evidence from Northwest Africa 3163 (abstract).
In Lunar and Planetary Science XLII, abstract no. 1508,
Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston.
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2011/pdf/1508.pdf

Hudgins J. A., Kelley S. P., Korotev R. L., and Spray J. G.
(2011) Mineralogy, geochemistry, and ⁴⁰Ar - ³⁹Ar geochronology of lunar granulitic
breccia Northwest Africa 3163 and paired stones: Comparisons with Apollo samples.
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 75, 2865–2881.
http://epsc.wustl.edu/%7Erlk/papers/hudgins_et_al_2011_gca_nwa_3163.pdf

Hudgins J. A. Spray J. G, and Hawkes C. D.
(2011) Element diffusion rates in lunar granulitic breccias: Evidence for contact metamorphism on the Moon.
American Mineralogist 96, 1673–1685.
http://www.minsocam.org/msa/ammin/toc/Abstracts/2011_Abstracts/ND11_Abstracts/Hudgins_p1673_11.pdf

Dammeier R. , Moser D., and Osinski G. R.
(2010) Understanding lunar granulites through a terrestrial analogue study (abstract).
Goldschmidt Conference Abstracts 2010, A205.
http://www.goldschmidt2010.org/abstracts/finalPDFs/A205.pdf

Rochette P., Gattacceca J., Ivanov A. V., Nazarov M. A., and Bezaeva N. S.
(2010) Magnetic properties of lunar materials: Meteorites, Luna and Apollo returned samples.
Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2010.02.007.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=MImg&_imagekey=B6V61-4YJ149F-1-W&_cdi=5801&_user=741313&_pii=S0012821X10001093&_orig=browse&_coverDate=03%2F05%2F2010&_sk=999999999&view=c&wchp=dGLzVzz-zSkzS&md5=0f06ee43082905a82a4648560e14f5a9&ie=/sdarticle.pdf

Shafer J. T., Hall C., Lapen T. J., and Brandon A. D.
(2010) Northwest Africa 3163: A window into the deep lunar crust? (abstract)
Goldschmidt Conference Abstracts 2010, p. A939.
http://www.goldschmidt2010.org/abstracts/finalPDFs/A939.pdf

Kuehner S. M., Irving A. J., Gellissen M., and Korotev R. L.
(2010) Petrology and composition of lunar troctolitic granulite Northwest Africa 5744:
A unique recrystallized, magnesian crustal sample (abstract).
In Lunar and Planetary Science XLI, abstract no. 1552,
41st Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Houston.
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2010/pdf/1552.pdf

Fernandes V. A., Irving A. J., Kuehner S. M., Gellissen M., Korotev R. L., and Bandfield J. L.
(2009) Petrology, bulk composition, Ar-Ar age and IR emission spectrum
of lunar granulite Northwest Africa 4881 (abstract).
In Lunar and Planetary Science XL, abstract no. 2009,
40th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Houston.
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2009/pdf/2009.pdf

Korotev R. L., Zeigler R. A., Irving A. J., and Bunch T. E.
(2009) Keeping up with the Lunar Meteorites — 2009 (abstract).
In Lunar and Planetary Science XL, abstract no. 1137,
40th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Houston.
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2009/pdf/1137.pdf

Hudgins J. A. and Spray J. G.
(2009) Lunar granulitic breccias: Differences between Apollo and meteorite samples (abstract).
72th Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society, number 5157.
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/metsoc2009/pdf/5157.pdf

Korotev R. L., Irving A. J., and Bunch T. E.
(2008) Keeping up with the lunar meteorites – 2008 (abstract).
In Lunar and Planetary Science XXXIX, abstract no. 1209,
39th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Houston.
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2008/pdf/1209.pdf

Korotev R. L.
(2006) New geochemical data for a some poorly characterized lunar meteorites (abstract).
In Lunar and Planetary Science XXXVII, number 1404,
Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston.
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2006/pdf/1404.pdf

Nishiizumi K. and Caffee M. W.
(2006) Constraining the number of lunar and martian meteorite falls (abstract).
In Meteorit. Planet. Sci. 41, p. A133,
69th Annual Meeting, Meteoritical Society.
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/metsoc2006/pdf/5368.pdf

Irving A. J., Kuehner S. M., Korotev R. L., Rumble D. III, and Hupé G. M.
(2006) Mafic granulitic impactite NWA 3163: A unique meteorite from the deep lunar crust (abstract).
In Lunar and Planetary Science XXXVII, abstract no. 1365,
Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston.
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2006/pdf/1365.pdf

Complete 74.1g slice of NWA 3163.		Closeup image of exterior surface of NWA 3163.

False-color, back-scattered electron Image 1.		False-color, back-scattered electron Image 2.