Bir Lehlou, H-chondrite

This 205 kilogram (451 pound) stone was found ~25 kilometers North of Bir Lehlou, in Western Sahara. It is the ~eighth largest …

Breja, LL6

Breja is an odd fall that somehow escaped publication despite having a known find location, known fall date, and a fairly large …

NWA 7788, Pallasite

This pallasite weighs 271 grams.  We have no plans to cut or analyze it, so it will probably remain provisional.

NWA 7803, Mesosiderite

This cute stone doesn’t have a texture that resembles any other Northwest African mesosiderites I’ve seen.  It’s also one of the least-weathered.  …

NWA 7804, Mesosiderite

This find consisted of a fresh, oriented 331 gram mostly complete stone.  Abundant olivine and pyroxene crystals are visible on the surface, …

NWA, Medium Octahedrite I

This 1,026 gram iron meteorite came from Said Haddany at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show in 2010.  It appears to be …

NWA, Medium Octahedrite II

This iron appears to be a medium octahedrite, from the pattern visible through stress fractures in the fusion crust.   It came from …

NWA, Hexahedrite

This is an oriented heat-shield with a few rhabdites visible on its surface (see last photo, center).  So, it’s a IIAB, hexahedrite.  …

NWA, Oriented Iron

This 267.5 gram heat-shield came from Aras Jonikas.  When I first saw photos, it looked so smooth and round that I thought …

NWA 3197, anomalous howardite

This odd meteorite is a mix of a few different things: the typical HED eucritic and diogenitic material make up most of …

NWA 978, R3.8

There’s not much in the Meteoritical Bulletin other than the basic information: R3.8, S3, W2, total known weight: 722 grams. Of note: …

NWA 5744, Lunar troctolite

This stone is one of many pairings to NWA 5744 & others.  It is a granulitic, troctolitic breccia: -a “troctolite” is a …

NWA 6497, polymict eucrite

This stone came already-cut from a dealer.  It weighs 44.6 grams and is a brecciated eucrite.  Of note — some clasts were …

NWA 7022, Lunar feldspathic breccia

The fusion-crusted and oriented ~385 gram main mass of Northwest Africa 7022 displays the meteorite’s two lithologies beautifully.  The meteorite is a …

NWA 7799, ureilite

This stone is a pretty one, destined to remain provisional and unclassified.  Fortunately, the fusion crust and thinly crusted break reveal the …

NWA 7831, diogenite

This meteorite isn’t even approved yet, but it’s a stunning diogenite comprised mostly of translucent, crystalline orthopyroxene.  I don’t know of any …

NWA, enstatite crystal

This stone is a single large enstatite crystal, presumably from an aubrite.  It weighs 77 grams, and is comprised of two fitting …

NWA, howardite

22 gram fresh HED with gemmy green pyroxene crystals.  Stones like this aren’t too special today, but, back in the late 1990s …

NWA, ureilite

This beautiful, slightly fluted heat shield is probably a ureilite.  505 grams. Thanks to Mohammed Ismaily.

NWA 6494, H/L3

This cute stone came from Rob Elliott some years ago.  From his photos, it was easy to tell that the stone was …

NWA 6501, L3

Here’s a cool stone. It has huge chondrules and practically no matrix. Some recent papers have described similar meteorites as “chondrule conglomerates.”  …

NWA 6504, L3.6

I don’t have much to add to the write-up; this stone was purchased already-cut from a dealer.  When it is polished, many …

NWA 6505, CK4

This stone was classified as a CK4, S2, Wi 4 (Wi stands for the new weathering index determined for CK chondrites by …

NWA 6506, CV3

Here’s a pretty one — nice chondrules.  The end pictured was used for the type specimen. Link to Meteoritical Bulletin:  

NWA 6507, CR2

While perusing eBay one day, an armored chondrule poking through the fusion crust of an unclassified stone caught my eye.  The 5.1 …

NWA 6508, EL3

NWA 6508 was purchased as an unclassified NWA meteorite on eBay in September of 2009.  The seller had cut it in half, …

NWA 7406, EL3

EL3’s are extraordinarily rare.  This stone is one of the four approved non-Antarctic EL3’s, as of 2020.  Here’s the main mass of …

NWA 7411, CV3

This brick of a meteorite is a specimen that we bring to every outreach event.  Chondrules, big CAIs, it’s perfect.  And it’s …

NWA 7634, carbonaceous chondrite

This ~850 gram carbonaceous chondrite is something of an enigma.  The original classification was “CO3,” with a description that described it as …

NWA 7669, LL3

This oriented stone has nice flow lines and what appears to be a huge type B CAI in the cut face, which …

NWA 7715, H6

Initial work suggested this stone was an H7.  It was later shown to be an H6.  The main mass weighs a little …

NWA 7789, LL3.1-LL6

This stunning 8.2 kilogram polymict breccia was recovered as a broken individual.  We don’t usually cut stones much, but this stone began …

NWA 7800, R-chondrite

This  45 gram stone is one of the freshest rumuruti chondrites found.  Glimmering sulfides can be seen on all surfaces.  Mottled matrix …

NWA 7802, CM2

This CM2 came from a Moroccan meteorite dealer several years ago.  We finally got around to requesting a provisional number in late …

NWA 7805, CK4

This 45 gram oriented CK chondrite was purchased in 2011 from a Moroccan meteorite dealer.

NWA 7806, CO3

This complete stone has a wonderful shape and is quite fresh.  More data when it comes…

NWA 7807, type-3 chondrite

This is a very cool meteorite originally sold to us as a pairing with NWA 801, a CR2.  Two of the stones …

Northwest Africa 7892, CO3.0

This stone is one of the most pristine chondrites known. All carbonaceous and ordinary chondrites have experienced some thermal and aqueous alteration.  …

NWA 8047, CM1

We had just missed out on another specimen from this find; I messaged the seller as soon as I saw his photo …

NWA 10085, K4

After a first round of analyses on the microprobe at UCLA, this stone left us with more questions than answers.  It is …

NWA 10088, LL3

This stone’s total known weight is 209.6 grams and it has been classified as an LL3 S1 W4.  This is the ~180 …

NWA xxxx, LL3.00

This meteorite is a fun one; I’m adding it because we’ve been dragging our feet about cutting it, and it’s pretty enough …

Northwest Africa, CV3

This beautiful stone with weathered fluting and flow lines was purchased in Erfoud from Mohamed Benzaki.  473.53 + 242.43 gram fitting fragments.

NWA, ordinary chondrite I

This ordinary chondrite has one of the nicer shapes I’ve seen; it’s concave, and flares to a point.  It also has an …

NWA, ordinary chondrite II

This stone was one of the nicer ones we saw on our 2011 trip to Morocco.  It’s flight-marked with flow-lines and lipping; …

NWA, ordinary chondrite III

At the 2019 Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, Moussa Minerals seemed to be everywhere: they had multiple tents set up at Kino Park, …