NWA 4781

CH3 chondrite
standby for nwa 4781 photo
Purchased October 2006
no coordinates recorded A single highly weathered stone weighing 181 g was found in Northwest Africa. The stone was acquired by Moroccan meteorite dealer A. Habibi, and thereafter, sold to the Polish Meteorite Laboratory. Analyses of individual samples of this meteorite, conducted at both Northern Arizona University (T. Bunch) and the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris (M. Denise), resulted in a classification for NWA 4781 of CH3 chondrite.

John Kashuba’s excellent webpage on NWA 4781, utilizing petrographic thin section views and descriptions, can be seen here. Further information about the CH group can be found on the Acfer 214 page. The specimen of NWA 4781 pictured above is a 1.45 g partial slice. The photo below shows the ‘dinosaur-skin’ texture of the fusion crust sculptured by extensive terrestrial weathering, consistent with grade W4, along with a slice below.

nwa 4781
click on image for a magnified view
Photo courtesy of A. Habibi

Photo courtesy of A. Habibi


For additional information on CH chondrite petrogenesis, read the PSRD article by G. Jeffrey Taylor: ‘The Oldest Metal in the Solar System‘, Sept. 2000.


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