FULL SLICE OF A MOON ROCK. ...

Description

FULL SLICE OF A MOON ROCK
NWA 2995 (NWA=Northwest Africa)
Lunar Feldspathic Breccia
Lunar Meteorite with a Total Known Weight of 538 grams
Algeria; Discovered 2005
This specimen is a full slice of a beautiful, very fresh 538 gram complete individual. Its mineralogy is that of a lunar feldspathic fragmental breccia that contains many FHT (Feldspathic Highlands Terrain) fine-grained rock types including norite, olivine basalt, gabbro and others. This meteorite comes from the lunar highlands which cover 84% of the Moon's surface. This type of lunar meteorite is produced by shock-welding lunar soil - Shock-welding is caused by the impact of a large meteorite nearby which, much like a nuclear weapon, releases massive amounts of heat energy (thermal radiation) and shock waves. Shock-welding occurs when the impact is far enough away that no direct melting occurs, and only the massive shock wave crushes and compresses the rock or regolith (lunar surface soil) together, creating a new rock, very much like making a snowball by squeezing the snow between one's hands. The incredible pressures generated by these nuclear weapon-strength impacts regularly produced very large zones of shock-welded material which, then, had to be blasted into space by an even larger impact in order to get to Earth. This particular lunar meteorite is composed of multiple types of rock from at least four generations of impact events which successively blasted the lunar surface rock apart and re-welded it into a new breccia - repeated at least four times. There is some impact or thermal melting as well as shock-melting in pockets and veins. The source of the material for the breccia was not surface soil, but deeper fragmented lunar soil with no exposure to the solar wind or cosmic rays. Because the source rocks for the lunar soil are from the highlands, only the oldest and more common lunar rock types are usually represented with ages of approximately 4.2 - 4.3 billion years old. This gorgeous slice has the added attraction of being virtually indistinguishable from an actual Apollo Mission moon rock with its large white anorthosite and greenish gabbroic fragments being offset by the dark gray and black background matrix. It also has a rind of desirable fusion crust around the entire edge. A superb, museum-worthy, eye-catching lunar meteorite! This slice has a very large surface area for the weight and measures 43.3 x 31.0 x 1.6 mm thick (1 3/4 x 1 1/4 x 1/16 inches) and weighs 4.26 grams.

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