Announcements from Meteoritical Bulletin 87-4 are appended below for the following Mars meteorites:
Northwest Africa 998 Nakhlite (Algeria or Morocco) Northwest Africa 1669 Basaltic shergottite (Morocco) Sayh al Uhaymir 120 Basaltic shergottite (Oman) Sayh al Uhaymir 150 Basaltic shergottite (Oman)
The Bulletin also mentions this Mars meteorite with no details:
Northwest Africa 1775 Basaltic shergottite (Morocco)
I do know that NWA 1775 is a 25 gram fragment found in 2002 in Morocco, and I should be receiving a photo of the meteorite from the person who posseses the main mass.
Not mentioned in the Bulletin is NWA 1183, a 140 gram Mars meteorite found in September 2002 in Morocco. NWA 1775 and NWA 1183 are both paired with the NWA 1068/1110 group.
SAU 120 and SAU 150 are also paired with the six other SAU meteorites. ecause of the pairings and prior announcements, the number of Mars meteorites remains at 28.
Ron Baalke
THE METEORITICAL BULLETIN
E-mail Announcement 87-4, May 6, 2003
Sara Russell, Editor (sara.russell@nhm.ac.uk)
Jutta Zipfel, Assoc. Ed. for Northwest Africa
(zipfel@mpch-mainz.mpg.de)
Luigi Folco, Assoc. Ed. for Africa (folco@unisi.it)
Monica Grady, Assoc. Ed. for Oman (M.Grady@nhm.ac.uk)
Rhian Jones, Assoc. Ed. for the Americas (rjones@unm.edu)
Tim McCoy, Assoc. Ed. for Antarctica (mccoy.tim@nmnh.si.edu)
Jeffrey N. Grossman, Assoc. Ed. for Web (jgrossman@usgs.gov)
This is the fourth electronic announcement of new meteorites to be published in Meteoritical Bulletin, No. 87, 2003 July. Here, you will find the complete text of announcements of newly described martian and lunar meteorites.
Martian meteorites described below:
Northwest Africa 998 Nakhlite (Algeria or Morocco) Northwest Africa 1669 Basaltic shergottite (Morocco) Sayh al Uhaymir 120 Basaltic shergottite (Oman) Sayh al Uhaymir 150 Basaltic shergottite (Oman)
Also listed in MB87 is:
Northwest Africa 1775 Basaltic shergottite (Morocco)
The preliminary text of the 2003 Meteoritical Bulletin, including the above meteorites, may by viewed at:
http://www.meteoriticalsociety.org/bulletin/mb87.pdf
All information in this e-mail and on the above-cited Meteoritical Bulletin webpage is subject to revision until final publication in the summer of 2003.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
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Northwest Africa 998
Algeria or Morocco
Purchased 2001 September
Martian meteorite (nakhlite)
A. and G. Hupé (Hupé) purchased, from dealers at the Tucson Gem and
Mineral Show in 2002 February, the main mass from a 456 g stone that
had been acquired at an unspecified site in western Algeria or
eastern Morocco in 2001 September. Dimensions before cutting: 72 mm
by 65 mm by 48 mm. Classification and mineralogy (A. Irving and S.
Kuehner, UWS): a friable, dark green rock with minor orange-brown
alteration products that probably are of pre-terrestrial origin. It
is composed mainly of subhedral, olive-green, complexly zoned
subcalcic augite (Fs22Wo39) with subordinate yellow olivine (Fa64),
orthopyroxene (Fs49Wo4), interstitial plagioclase (Ab61Or4 containing
0.1 wt% SrO, and exhibiting normal birefringence), titanomagnetite,
chlorapatite and pyrrhotite. The overall texture is that of a
hypabyssal, adcumulate igneous rock, and the apparent crystallization
sequence is olivine, orthopyroxene, titanomagnetite, augite, apatite,
plagioclase. There is a weak preferred orientation of prismatic
pyroxene crystals, many of which have very distinctive zoning, with
cores of augite surrounded by irregular, inverted pigeonite rims (now
consisting of orthopyroxene with fine augite lamellae). Trains of
tiny melt inclusions are present along healed fractures within
pyroxene; microprobe study confirms that most of these are K-Na-Al-
bearing silicate glass, but some are intergrowths of glass and Fe-
bearing carbonate, which may represent quenched immiscible silicate-
carbonate liquids. Symplectitic intergrowths of titanomagnetite and
low-Ca pyroxene are present at grain boundaries between large,
discrete olivine and titanomagnetite grains, but are not present
around chromian titanomagnetite inclusions within olivine. These
observations suggest that a pre-terrestrial oxidation process
produced the symplectites, and involved high temperature, deuteric
fluid infiltration along grain boundaries; such fluids also may have
produced the irregular pigeonitic rims on augite crystals. Secondary
(probably pre-terrestrial) ankeritic carbonate, K-feldspar (some Fe-
bearing), serpentine (?), calcite and a Ca sulfate are present on
grain boundaries and within cracks in augite. Oxygen isotope
composition (D. Rumble, CIW): replicate analyses of acid-washed
augite by laser fluorination gave d18O = +3.9 +/- 0.2; d17O = +2.4 +/-
0.1; D17O = +0.30 +/- 0.02 permil. Specimens: type specimens, 20 g,
UWS, 20 g, FMNH, and two polished thin sections, UWS; main mass, Hupé.
Northwest Africa 1669
Morocco
Purchased January 2001
Martian meteorite (basaltic shergottite)
A single stone weighing 36 g was bought in Erfoud in January 2001 by
Bruno Fectay (Fectay). The location of its find is unknown but Al
Mala'ika was used as working name. The sample is mostly covered with
desert varnish with a few remnants of fusion crust. Classification
and mineralogy (Albert Jambon and Omar Boudouma, UPVI; Jean-Alix
Barrat, UAng; Marcel Bohn, Brest): fine-grained basaltic rock
consisting mainly of zoned pyroxenes with intergrowths of pigeonite
En58-25Wo9-19Fs32-61 and augite En19-47Wo39-24Fs54-18; FeO/MnO ratio
of 34 (n=312). Maskelynite (Ab41-53Or1-6An58-42) appears to be
injected between pyroxene phenocrysts. Accessory minerals include
pyrrhotite, merrilite, apatite, ulvöspinel, ilmenite, silica and
baddeleyite. Small melt pockets with stishovite occuring as
submicrometric needles. Pyroxene cores are cut by large and medium
sized fractures whereas their rims are affected by numerous small
fractures. Maskelynite is only affected by a few major fractures.
Terrestrial calcite is present mainly as veins cross-cutting the
meteorite, as in many other Saharan finds. Oxygen isotope composition
(I. A. Franchi, OU): d18O = +0.30 permil; d17O = +2.85 permil; D17O=
4.91 permil. Specimen; main mass, Fectay; type specimen, 7.4 g, ENSL.
Sayh al Uhaymir 120 21°00.2' N, 57°19.3' E
Oman
Found 2002 November 17
Martian meteorite (basaltic shergottite)
A small stone of 75 g was found in the area of previous shergottite
finds. This stone has a well preserved black fusion crust. This is a
grey-greenish stone with porphyritic texture; large olivine
phenocrysts are embedded in a groundmass consisting of maskelynite
and pigeonite. SaU 102 is paired with SaU 005/008/051/060/090/094.
Classification (S. Afanasiev, Vernad). Specimens: type specimen, 15.8
g, Vernad; main mass with anonymous finder.
Sayh al Uhaymir 150 20°59'31.3" N, 57°19'11,7" E
Al Ghaba, Oman
Found 2002 October 8
Martian meteorite (basaltic shergottite)
A 107.7 g olive-brown coloured stone of relatively angular shape with
one small area of thin black-brown fusion crust was recovered on a
Miocene fresh-water limestone gravel plateau about 43 km south of Al
Ghaba by Rainer and Sven Bartoschewitz. Mineralogy and classification
(R. Bartoschewitz, Bart): porphyritic texture with olivine
phenocrysts up to 2 mm (Fo67-64) set in a matrix consisting of
feldspathic glass (An53-66Or0.3-0.8) and pigeonite (En62-69Wo7-11)
with minor Ca-poor pyroxene (En65-66Fs34-35). Shock melt veins and
pockets are partly recrystallized. Shock stage S5. Oxygen isotopic
composition (R.N. Clayton, UChi): d17O = +2.78 permil, d18O = +4.74
permil, they fall in the SNC field. Analysed by P. Appel and B. Mader
(Kiel). SaU 005, 008, 051, 060 and 094 were found in the same area
and may be paired. Specimens: 17.7 g Muzeum Ziemi PAN, al. Na Skarpie
27, PL- Warszawa, 2.7 g Kiel, main mass Bart.
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ADDRESSES OF METEORITE COLLECTIONS AND RESEARCH FACILITIES
ABBREVIATED ABOVE MAY BE FOUND ON-LINE AT
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