Northwest Africa 4483

Algeria

Find: July 2006

Achondrite (lunar, granulitic breccia)

History: Purchased by Stefan Ralew in July 2006 from a dealer in Erfoud, Morocco.

Physical characteristics: Twelve broken fragments of very fine-grained, pale grey rock with a combined weight of 208 g.

Petrography: (A. Irving and S. Kuehner, UWS) Fine grained recrystallized breccia composed of larger plagioclase grains (converted mainly to maskelynite) poikilitically enclosing very small grains (mostly 30–80 μm) of low-Ca pyroxene (some with very fine augite exsolution lamellae), olivine, Ti-chromite, ilmenite, troilite, and metal.

Geochemistry: Olivine (Fa30.9–60.8, FeO/MnO = 88.1–106), plagioclase (An96.2–98Or