[meteorite-list] Achondritic inclusions

[bernd.pauli at paulinet.de]

Phil wrote:

> I've been curious about a piece of NWA 869 I cut
> into and am interested in opinions or observations.

> Bernd mentioned "achondritic" gray inclusions more than
> a year ago ... and Maria just showed a slice containing
> a couple of them.

> Is this a large half-baked chondrule or one
> of these achondritic inclusions of some sort.


Hello Phil and List,

Let me first of all say that your slice is a wonderful example
of the many different looks NWA 869 specimens surprise us with!

The lower part of your slice looks very much like L3.x or LL3.x material
(no surprise as we all know that even L3.8 has been proposed for some
NWA 869 lithologies).

Those large mineralic clasts look like pyroxene or (especially the one
on the right) like a mixture of pyroxene and olivine to me. The possibly
achondritic material I was talking about in my post about a year ago, can
be seen in O.R. Norton's ENCYCLOPEDIA, p. 144 (lower picture).

This fine-grained material - so fine-grained that it remains featureless
even under the microscope - is, according to O.R. Norton (p. 144), typical
of basaltic achondrites.

I am going to send you, Christian, and Maria, (the 869 fan club :-) a
JPEG of such an inclusion in one of my NWA 869 specimens (purchased from
Dean Bessey) in a private mail so you get a first-hand impression of what
I was talking about. It is the gray, featureless area in the 9 o'clock position
of the 30.8-gram piece on the left.

Best regards,

Bernd


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