Lunar meteorites or just rocks?

[Basaltgooroo]

how does one tell if the suspected rock is a lunar or marsian meteorite?

Most of them just look like ordanary rocks from earth.

i have a rock that i cant use the files on because the file isn't hard enough. I have to use my wet stone to file it away.

how do i tell if its a rock or meteorite.

ordanary chondrites have beads of metal and irons have etch patterns but

what are the characteristics that set lunars and marsians apart from

earth rocks?

Thank you

[Erik]

[Hveragerthi]

how does one tell if the suspected rock is a lunar or marsian meteorite?

Most of them just look like ordanary rocks from earth.

i have a rock that i cant use the files on because the file isn't hard enough. I have to use my wet stone to file it away.

how do i tell if its a rock or meteorite.

ordanary chondrites have beads of metal and irons have etch patterns but

what are the characteristics that set lunars and marsians apart from

earth rocks?

Thank you

[Erik]

It all depends on what part of the moon or Mars they came from. With lunar meteorites for example there is NWA482 that is grayish-white with black veins of shocked glass. Some of the Dhofar lunars are multicolored, and quite pretty. In fact I would never have thought they were meteorites looking at them. And some of the others from the moon are black with white inclusions of various sizes. A few things I have read about lunars are that the basalts tend to have a greenish cast in their crust. That lunars are not magnetic. And that they do not contain round inclusions since there is no method of smoothing out angular fragments. Although a lot of the information is confusing. For instance I have seen pictures of lunars with round clasts in them. And they show iron in the analysis, but they say they are not magnetic. I have not seen an explanation for this.

Martian meteorites also vary. Most of the Martian meteorites I have looked at have a green cast to them, probably from the olivine content. There is an abundance of olivine on mars since there is no water to contribute to its decomposition. From what I have seen, visible metal is rare in these meteorites. I have not followed the chemistry of most of the Martian meteorites. The one I have been studying is primarily pyroxene, with some olivine inclusions, and minor titanium and other oxides.

Your best bet would be to look up pictures for both and see if any of them look like what you have. Then see if the chemistry seems to match. If it still looks good then send off a piece for examination.

Here is a link with some photos of Martian meteorites:

http://www.meteorlab.com/METEORLAB2001dev/snclist.htm

And some other interesting links:

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/project/prosp...eral/minbg.html

http://www4.nau.edu/meteorite/Meteorite/Lunar.html

http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/snc/index.html

http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/snc/nwa998.html

http://meteorites.wustl.edu/lunar/moon_meteorites.htm

[John B.]

Hi Eric and All

I think the only real give away will be the ablation crust or exterior ablation features !! Unless your hunting somewhere like Oman where there is no desert varnish or colored rocks at all just meteorites and camel turds !! Some of the lunars have little clasts of white anthrocite (SP?) which may give some indication :hmmmmmm: . But I've looked at bazzilions of terrestrial rocks with white clasts or inclusions in them :shrug: . Bob Verish's LA meteorites Martian Basalt one of them I for sure would have pitched the other was oriented with gorgeous flow lines :woohoo: . If I found something like that I would be picking up any similar looking rocks as well :whatever: . I think a big help is to come down to the Tucson Gem show and really closely study some decent sized pieces of the different variations of Lunar and Martian material up close and personal :confused0092: . Then you will most certainly drive your university lab crazy with good looking leaverites :confused0013: . But you just never know you might hit the jackpot :innocent0002: !! Happy Huntin John B.