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The oriented complete specimen of NWA 482 weighed 1015 grams before cutting.

Specimen SALES of this exquisite meteorite.

The following announcement was published in the Meteoritical Bulletin, No. 85,  July 2001:

• Northwest Africa 482 (NWA 482)
• Found 2000?
• Lunar meteorite - impact melt (polymict, crystalline) breccia

The exact location of find is unknown, but it is probably in Algeria. The stone is complete, oriented, and appears relatively unweathered. Classification and mineralogy (A. Rubin and   P. Warren, UCLA, and D. Kring and I. Daubar, UAz): texture is typical of a crystalline impact melt breccia (polymict) with highland affinities; glassy and vesicular melt veins and melt pockets indicate shock subsequent to compaction by an impact event; plagioclase, An95.7 Ab4.09 Or0.17 (n = 136, UAz); olivine, Fo65-68 (average Fo66) with FeO/MnO =  88 +/- 7 g/g (UCLA); olivine Fo68.4 with FeO/MnO = 93.9 +/- 7.7 g/g (range: 78.7 to 111) (n = 51, UAz); pyroxene, Fs25 Wo17 with nearly uniform Mg/(Mg+Fe) = 67 - 68 mol% and FeO/MnO = 51 +/- 6 g/g (n = 10, UCLA); pyroxene, Wo10.3-51 En32.6-63.9 Fs42.6-14.2, mean Mg/(Mg+Fe) = 68 mol%, FeO/MnO =  52 +/- 8 g/g (n = 28, UAz);   glassy melt veins occur in both UCLA and UAz samples; a 0.1 mm vein (UCLA) has   SiO2 = 44.3 wt.%,  Na2O = 0.3 wt.%, Al2O3 = 30.0 wt.%, FeO = 3.6 wr.%, MgO = 3.9 wt.%, CaO = 17.3 wt.%, and TiO2 = 0.3 wt.%, which may approximate the bulk meteorite composition.

A full account of our trip to Northwest Africa - Kim Farmer's trip report

The Washington University of St. Louis has a website giving information on all Lunar meteorites at Lunar Meteorites

Research paper stating that NWA 482 came from the Dark Side of the Moon !!!

Nishiizumi K. and Caffee M. W. (2001) Exposure histories of lunar meteorites Dhofar 025, 026, and Northwest Africa 482 (abstract), 64th Meteoritical Society Meeting, CD-ROM no. 5411.

Consolmagno G. J., Russell S. S., and Jeffries T. E. (2004) An in–situ study of REE abundances in three anorthositic impact melt lunar highland meteorites. Lunar and Planetary Science XXXV, abstract no. 1370, Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston.

Daubar I. J., Kring D. A., Swindle T. D., and Jull A. J. T. (2002) Northwest Africa 482: A crystalline impact-melt breccia from the lunar highlands, Meteorit. Planet. Sci. 37, 1797-1814.

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