MARE METEORITICS

Name: Northwest Africa 032
Location: Morocco
Type: Lunar Mare basalt

NWA 032 was found October 1999, west of the Kem Kem plateau in MoroccoNorthwest Africa 032 is a unique, unbrecciated, low-Ti mare basalt, similar to Apollo 12 and 15 basalts. It consists of phenocrysts of olivine, pyroxene, and chromite in a very fine-grained matrix of pyroxene and feldspar. An abundance of impact-melt veins, maskelynized feldspar, and mosaisized olivine pervade the rock, and came from the Mare region of the lunar basin. The total known weight for this rare and beautiful lunar meteorite is only 300g. A total known weight of 156g is reported for its only pairing, NWA 479. Mare basalt accounts for only about 1% of the total volume of the lunar crust . This is a very difficult lunar meteorite to acquire because of its low TKW, only a few sources have this material and these sources are not willing to sell cheaply.

This meteorite was published in the Meteoritical Society Bulletin No. 84
Check out their web site at http://www.meteoriticalsociety.org/