[meteorite-list] New Lunar Beauty - NWA 3163

From: bernd.pauli_at_paulinet.de <bernd.pauli_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed Nov 2 12:29:17 2005
Message-ID: <DIIE.0000003400003EE6_at_paulinet.de>

Hello Jeff, Greg, Martin, "Lunatics", and List,

"due to the very low amount of caliche and virtually no interior
staining, that he would suggest the weathering grade would be
very low, perhaps W1 if he had to apply the grade".

There are actually quite a few lunar meteorites which were given
a weathering level by the scientists/labs who/that classified them:

DaG 262 - moderately weathered (M?nster)
DaG 996 - moderately weathered (Humboldt, Berlin)
Dhofar 025 - terrestrial weathering is not significant (Vernad)
Dhofar 026 - terrestrial weathering is not significant (Vernad)
Dhofar 280 - terrestrial weathering is not significant (Vernad)
Dhofar 301-307: moderately weathered or weathering (Vernad)
                is not significant or weathering is insignificant
Dhofar 309-311: moderately weathered (Vernad)
Dhofar 457-459+461: terrestrial weathering is not significant (UCLA)
Dhofar 490 - moderately weathered (Humboldt, Berlin)
Dhofar 730-731+733: moderately weathered (Vernad)
NWA 482 - appears relatively unweathered (UCLA)
NWA 773 - weathering grade, W1 (SWML)
SaU 169 - weathering: W1 (Fe metal shows only little oxidation) [UNI Bern]

Greg also wrote:

"I guess one could compare this lunar meteorite to another similar one
and could make an educated guess or suggestion of weathering level."

Maybe one of these ;-)

Dhofar 733 (LUN-A) - anorthositic granulitic breccia
DaG 262 (LUN-A) - polymict anorthositic lunar highland breccia/
                  contains maskelynite-rich clasts
Dhofar 287 (LUN-B) - plagioclase is totally converted to maskelynite/
                   a low-Ti mare basalt, with similarities to Apollo 12 and 15 basalts


Best regards,

Bernd
Received on Wed 02 Nov 2005 12:29:14 PM PST