Moore County Unbrecciated Cumulate Eucrite, 1.88 kg

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Moore County is a flattened, conical-shaped (“shield”) meteorite with a dark brown, glossy fusion crust, well-developed flow lines and up to 4-mm deep regmaglypts. The fusion crust is 7 cm and a geocentric velocity of ≥6 km/sec (Carver and Anders, 1976). Moore County is an unbrecciated cumulate eucrite, composed mostly of equigranular, uniformlydistributed, coarse-grained plagioclase and pyroxene. It is texturally and chemically similar to terrestrial cumulates, including evidence of crystal accumulation at the bottom of a magma chamber (Hess and Henderson, 1949). Chemically, it is more magnesian than non-cumulate eucrites, but it is the most ironrich cumulate eucrite. Figure 1b: The Moore County meteorite. This view is of the forward face with clear regmaglypts and flow lines. No scale is given for the photo, but maximum dimensions (at right angles) were reported as 15 cm x 10.5 cm x 8 cm (6 in x 4 3/16 in x 3 3/16 in). From Henderson and Davis (1936). General Petrography: The Moore County eucrite was first described by Henderson and Davis (1936), followed by Hess and Henderson (1949). These sources contain significant and detailed petrographic descriptions, as well as whole-rock and mineral chemistry data, and provide a good basic overview of the meteorite. 2
Moore County is an unbrecciated, coarse-grained, equigranular to subophitic orthocumulate (Hsu and Crozaz, 1997) eucrite, consisting almost entirely of 0.5-1.5 mm, white to gray, subhedral to euhedral Figure 1c: Two different views of the Moore County eucrite (exterior – top, interior – left), from the collection of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. All photos courtesy of Chris Tacker at the NC Museum. laths of calcic plagioclase and 0.2-6 mm, brown-yellow, subhedral to euhedral crystals of ortho- and clinopyroxene (which also occur as inclusions and exsolution lamellae) uniformly distributed throughout the rock (Henderson and Davis, 1936; Hess and Henderson, 1949; Nord, 1983). Plagioclase is often included in pyroxene (Nord, 1983; Mittlefehldt, 1990) but pyroxene is never included in plagioclase (Nord, 1983). Henderson and Davis (1936) reported both plagioclase and pyroxene grains with welldeveloped cleavage faces; however, Hess and Henderson (1949) reported cleavage in pyroxene but not plagioclase. Tridymite is present as large, anhedral, interstitial grains; primary plagioclase and pyroxene grains abutting these large tridymite crystals have well-formed crystal faces, consistent with late tridymite formation from an intercumulus liquid trapped in pore spaces during crystal settling (Hess and Henderson, 1949; Nord, 1983, Mittlefehldt, 1990). Figure 2 shows a thin section photograph, and Figure 3 shows a drawing made from the same photo; both show basic textural and mineralogical relationships. Other accessory minerals in Moore County include opaques (ilmenite, chromite, troilite), and apatite, with some evidence of free metal; most of these minerals occur as interstitial grains (Hess and Henderson, 1949; Hostetler and Drake, 1978; Nord, 1983) and as inclusions in pyroxene or plagioclase (Henderson and Davis, 1936; Hess and Henderson, 1949; Hostetler and Drake, 1978). All component minerals are only loosely held together (i.e., weak intergranular bonding), and they can be easily separated by lightly rubbing a fresh surface of the rock, which complicated initial attempts to obtain a thin section (Henderson and Davis, 1936). 3
Page 1: Moore County Unbrecciated Cumulate
Page 5 and 6: Nord (1983) reported a 1-mm thick f
Page 7 and 8: Augite also occurs as 0.2-0.5 mm pr
Page 9 and 10: There are no other known cumulate o
Page 11 and 12: REE patterns in Moore County plagio
Page 13 and 14: 13 Figure 11: Pyroxene quadrilatera
Page 15 and 16: Table 2: Major element data, and li
Page 17 and 18: Table 3 (cont.): Minor, trace, and
Page 19 and 20: These Sm-Nd and Lu-Hf ages are in c
Page 21 and 22: Figure 15: Top = response of NRM in
Page 23: event was likely arrested by an imp

Moore County Unbrecciated Cumulate Eucrite, 1.88 kg

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