Lunar meteorite Gadamis 003 / Apollo 16
Article No.: 7851
Business card size trading card containing a small fragment of the lunar meteorite Gadamis 003 that was examined and identified to match the lunar material recovered from the Apollo 16 landing site!
So this can be considered lunar rock from Apollo 16 (in a way...).
Certified on the backside!
From the Meteoritical Bulletin :
Gadamis 003 30.284°N, 11.005°E
Ghadamis, Libya
Find: 2021
Classification: Lunar meteorite (anorth)
Physical characteristics: Two identically appearing stones (670 and 600 g) found together at the Gadamis 002 site. The stones have a light green sand-blasted exterior, patches of smoothed dark fusion crust, as well as some light tan desert weathering. Polished sawcut surfaces reveal a brecciated, very fine-grained light gray interior with a few scattered white grains.
Petrography: (A. Ross and C. Agee, UNM) Microprobe analysis reveals a significantly brecciated, cataclastic anorthitic plagioclase host making up 98-99% of this meteorite. Poikilitically enclosed in the plagioclase are sparse, very small olivine and pyroxene blebs (most in the range 5-10 μm). Larger pyroxene grains are scarce with two larger grains in size range of 300 μm observed in the microprobe mount. Together, olivine and pyroxene make up a total of ~1-2% of this meteorite.
Geochemistry: (A. Ross, UNM) Plagioclase An96.1±0.4Ab3.8±0.4Or0.2±0.1, n=6; olivine Fa39.1±0.8, Fe/Mn=105±5, n=6; pigeonite Fs32.9±4.9Wo6.1±2.5, Fe/Mn=59±4, n=5.
Classification: Lunar ferroan anorthosite, cataclastic. Olivine, pigeonite and plagioclase compositional values plot within the FAN suite field (after Warren, 1993). The very high anorthite content (98-99%) and cataclastic texture is similar to Apollo 16 cataclastic FANs. Paired with Gadamis 002.