77017 (194) Feldspathic Granulitic Impactite
Collection:
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Fact sheet

77017 (194) Feldspathic Granulitic Impactite

77017 contains a large, annealed feldspathic breccia set in a frothy black glass matrix. The feldspathic portion is an annealed gabbroic rock that has been recognized as an impactite, because it contains a high concentration of meteoritic siderophile elements. Shock features indicate subsequent impact followed by the addition of black glass of mare composition. The feldspathic portion has been described as an olivine-bearing, anorthositic gabbro with a relatively coarse-grained poikilitic (or poikiloblastic) texture (rotation 1). There are also areas with relict lithic clasts of annealed troctolitic anorthosite and anorthosite. Mineral clasts of plagioclase, olivine, pink spinel and ilmenite are enclosed within pigeonite and augite oikocrysts.

Dating of the sample indicates that a major metamorphic event forming the feldspathic portion was at about 4 b.y., whereas the glass-forming event was about ~1.5 b.y.

The sample weighed 1730 grams before analysis.

Further details of this and other Apollo samples are here: http://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/lunar/
 

About this collection

Apollo 17, the final manned landing mission, had two objectives: to obtain samples of ancient rocks from the lunar highlands and to look for evidence of younger volcanic activity on the valley floor.

This small Collection contains material deriving from both periods, including igneous rocks around 4.3 billion years old from the lunar highlands as well as younger volcanic samples dating from about 3.6 billion years ago.

Apollo 17 was launched on 7 December 1972.

Sample details

Collection: Apollo 17
Type
metamorphic
Rock-forming mineral
olivine
pyroxene
plagioclase
glass
Accessory minerals
ilmenite
spinel
troilite
metallic iron
Category guide  
Category Guide
Title
Refers to any word or phrase that appears in the individual rock names. Names are generally descriptive; they allow users to search for broad terms like ‘granite’ as well as more specific names such as ‘breccia’. However, the adjacent descriptions of the specimens captures a wider range of general words and phrases and is a more powerful search tool.
Description
Refers to any word or phrase that appears anywhere in the descriptions of the specimens
Accessory minerals
Minerals that occur in very low abundance in a rock. They are usually not visible with the naked eye and contribute perhapssver, they often dominate the rare elements such as platinum group metals.
Rock-forming minerals
Minerals that make up the bulk of all rock samples and are also the ones used in rock classi?cation.
Timescale
Selecting one or more period, for example 'Jurassic'.
Theme
A term used to group together related samples that are not already gathered into a single Collection. For instance, there is a ‘SW England granites’ theme that includes such rock types as granite, hydrothermal breccia, skarn and vein samples.
Category
A general term used to label a rock sample. It is a useful way of grouping similar samples throughout a collection. Category names are often, but not exclusively, common rock names (e.g. granite, basalt, dolerite, gabbro, greisen, skarn, gneiss, amphibolite, limestone, sandstone).
Owner
The owner of the sample that appears in the collection. For example, NASA owns all the samples that appear in the Moon Rocks collection
We would like to thank the following for the use of this sample: