Ksar Ghilane (KG): A New Meteorite Dense Collection - Lunar and ...

44th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (2013)
KSAR GHILANE (KG): A NEW METEORITE DENSE COLLECTION AREA. Jordi Llorca 1 , David Allepuz
and José V. Casado, 1 Institute of Energy Technologies and Centre for Research in NanoEngineering, Technical University
of Catalonia, Diagonal 647, 08028 Barcelona, Spain, jordi.llorca@upc.edu.
Introduction: Ksar Ghilane (KG) is a new meteorite
dense collection area on the Saharan platform, just
east of the Ksar Ghilane oasis, Quibili province, Tunisia.
It is over Senonian limestone, partially covered
with sand and vegetation and crossed by an unpaved
road parallel to a petroleum pipeline servicing El
Borma Oil camp. Nearest town is Tataouine, ca. 30 km
east from the area limit. We first recovered 8 ordinary
chondrites and 1 shergottite in KG. Recently, 2 other
ordinary chondrites were found by others (see
Meteoritical Bulletin Database).
Map of Tunisia showing the location of the Ksar Ghilane
(KG) dense collection area
Meteorites first recovered in KG dense collection area
name date mass / g classification
KG 001 01-10-08 5511 L6
KG 002 01-13-10 538 shergottite
KG 003 01-13-10 299 L6
KG 004 01-16-10 335 H5
KG 005 01-16-10 73 L6
KG 006 01-30-11 26 H4
KG 007 01-31-11 5381 H6
KG 008 01-31-11 295 H5
KG 009 01-31-11 173 H6
The KG 002 shergottite as it was encountered in 2010
KG 002 basaltic shergottite: KG 002 is the first
martian meteorite from Tunisia and the 100 th Martian
meteorite fragment registered in the Meteoritical Bulletin.
The surface of KG 002 has been subject to hot
desert weathering (i.e., sand abrasion), resulting in the
removal of the majority of the fusion crust. It is a coarse-grained
basaltic shergottite [1-3], mainly composed
of maskelynitized plagioclase (~52 vol%) and pyroxene
(~37 vol%, Fs26-96En5-50Wo2-41). It also contains Ferich
olivine (~4.5 vol%), large Ca-phosphates, including
both merrillites and Cl-apatites (~3.4 vol%), minor
amounts of silica or SiO2-normative K-rich glass,
pyrrhotite, Ti-magnetite, ilmenite, and accessory baddeleyite.
The largest crystals of pyroxene and plagioclase
reach sizes of ~4 mm and ~5 mm. Pyroxene compositions
typically range from cores of about
Fs29En41Wo30 to rims of about Fs68En14Wo17. Most
plagioclases (maskelynites) are Ab41-49An39-58Or1-7 in
composition, but some can be as anorthitic as An93.
Olivine (Fa91-96) occurs mainly within symplectitic intergrowths,
in paragenesis with ilmenite, or at neighboring
areas of symplectites. KG 002 is heavily shocked
(S5) as indicated by mosaic extinction of pyroxenes,
maskelynitized plagioclase, the occurrence of localized
shock melt glass pockets and low radiogenic He concentration.
According to the K, U, Ba and Sr abundances
and fresh appearance of sulfides, KG 002 is not
significantly weathered, although a positive Ce anomaly
is recognized in the REE pattern. KG 002 strongly
resembles Los Angeles and NWA 2800 basaltic
shergottites in element composition, petrography, mineral
chemistry, crystallization and CRE ages, suggesting
a possible launch-pairing. Detailed analyses and
discussion is provided in [4].
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44th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (2013)
Optical and BE images of the KG 002 shergottite
KG Ordinary chondrites: KG 001 (129 pieces,
L6, S3, W2, Fa23, Fs21.2, Wo1.7); KG 003 (1 piece, L6,
S2, W2, Fa24.1, Fs20.4, Wo1.3); KG 004 (1 piece, H5, S1,
W2, Fa19.2, Fs16.9, Wo0.9); KG 005 (3 pieces, L6, S4,
W3, Fa24.8, Fs20.0, Wo1.1); KG 006 (18 pieces, H4, S3,
W3, Fa17.2, Fs15.6, Wo0.8); KG 007 (83 pieces, H6, S4,
W3, Fa18.5, Fs16.0, Wo1.1); KG 008 (3 pieces, H5, S2,
W3, Fa17.8, Fs15.0, Wo2.9); KG 009 (2 pieces, H6, S4,
W2, Breccia, Fa18.7, Fs17.5, Wo2.2).
BE image of KG 005 (L6)
BE image of KG 006 (H4)
BE image of KG 007 (H6)
BE image of KG 008 (H5)
References: [1] Roszjar J., Bischoff A., Llorca J.,
Pack A. (2012) LPS XLIII, Abstract #1780. [2] Cartwright
J. A., Merchel S., Rugel G., Fimiani L., Ludwig
P., Llorca J., Ott U. (2012) LPS XLIII, Abstract #1213.
[3] Hoffmann V. H., Llorca J., Molins E., Mikouchi T.,
Funaki F., Kaliwoda M., Hochleitner R., Yamamoto
Y., Kodama K. (2012) 75th Annual Meeting of the
Meteoritical Society, Abstract #5107. [4] Llorca J.,
Roszjar J., Cartwright J. A., Bischoff A., Ott U., Pack
A., Merchel S., Rugel G., Fimiani L., Ludwig P.,
Casado J. V., Allepuz D. (2013) Meteoritics & Planet.
Sci., in press.
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