Laâyoune 002 27.070°N, 13.202°W

Saguia el Hamra, Western Sahara

Find: 2022 Jan

Classification: Lunar meteorite (feldspathic breccia)

Identity card and specimen in display 30x30 mm diameter

Genuine Guaranteed Lunar meteorite

History: Found near Laayoune, Morocco, in January 2022 and purchased from the finder by Aziz Habibi.

Physical characteristics: Both stones (3680 g, 1468 g) lack fusion crust and have a similar overall gray color with some whitish clasts visible.

Petrography: (A. Irving, UWS and P. Carpenter, WUSL) Breccia composed of mineral clasts of anorthite, olivine, orthopyroxene, pigeonite and augite plus accessory ilmenite, chromite (with variable Ti content) and minor secondary barite.

Geochemistry: Olivine (Fa46.3-46.7, FeO/MnO = 94-98, N = 4), orthopyroxene (Fs33.5Wo3.8, FeO/MnO = 57), pigeonite (Fs36.9-45.1Wo6.5-8.4, FeO/MnO = 57-64, N = 3), augite (Fs19.1-20.9Wo39.1-39.7, FeO/MnO = 53-54, N = 2), anorthite (An96.1-97.7Or0.3-0.1, N = 3).

Classification: Lunar (feldspathic breccia).

Specimens: 20.7 g in the form of a polished end cut at UWB; remainder with Mr. A. Habibi.

How rare is a lunar meteorite?

A few rare meteorites come from the Moon (0.7%) and Mars (0.5%)

A lunar meteorite is a meteorite that is known to have originated on the Moon.

A meteorite hitting the Moon is normally classified as a transient lunar phenomenon.

Lunar meteorites collected in Africa and Oman are, for all practical purposes, the only source of Moon rocks available for private ownership.

This is because all rocks collected during the Apollo Moon-landing program are property of the United States government or of other nations to which the U.S. conveyed them as gifts.

Most lunar meteorites are launched from the Moon by impacts making lunar craters of a few kilometers in diameter or less.

No source crater of lunar meteorites has been positively identified, although there is speculation that the highly anomalous lunar meteorite Sayh al Uhaymir 169 derives from the Lalande impact crater on the lunar near side