14051 (6) Impact melt breccia
Collection:
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Click the microscope button to view a thin section for this sample.
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Fact sheet

14051 (6) Impact melt breccia

14051 is an impact melt breccia. It is a coherent, fine-grained clastic rock having a small percentage of sub-rounded light and subordinate dark clasts in a medium-tan matrix. 14051 has the texture of impact melt rock similar to the large boulders at Apollo 17. The fine grain matrix has recrystallised with formation of distinct, often elongate grains of ilmenite. Both metallic iron and troilite are also relatively common (see reflected light view). The void space has consolidated into distinct, millimetre-sized vugs and vesicles. Glass fragments are uncommon.

The sample weighed 191.3 grams before analysis and is 3.71±0.05 billion years old (Ar/Ar).

Our thin section is slightly thick and in places displays plagioclase feldspar as pale yellow crystals (in XPL). Rotation 2 shows one of these crystals.

Further details of this and other Apollo samples are here: http://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/lunar/

Additional images
  • Sample collection site (courtesy of NASA)
About this collection

The Apollo 14 landing site was in a region formed by impact-basin debris.

Most of the 42 kilograms of rocks and soil collected on Apollo 14 are breccias (rocks that are composed of fragments of other, older rocks). In some cases, the rock fragments that form a breccia are themselves breccias. Such rocks obviously have experienced complex histories with multiple generations of impact events. Some breccias were heated enough that some of the material in the rock was melted. 

Apollo 14 was launched on 31 January 1971.

Sample details

Collection: Apollo 14
Type
metamorphic
Rock-forming mineral
olivine
pyroxene
feldspar
glass
Accessory minerals
ilmenite
troilite
metallic iron
Category guide  
Category Guide
Title
Refers to any word or phrase that appears in the individual rock names. Names are generally descriptive; they allow users to search for broad terms like ‘granite’ as well as more specific names such as ‘breccia’. However, the adjacent descriptions of the specimens captures a wider range of general words and phrases and is a more powerful search tool.
Description
Refers to any word or phrase that appears anywhere in the descriptions of the specimens
Accessory minerals
Minerals that occur in very low abundance in a rock. They are usually not visible with the naked eye and contribute perhapssver, they often dominate the rare elements such as platinum group metals.
Rock-forming minerals
Minerals that make up the bulk of all rock samples and are also the ones used in rock classi?cation.
Timescale
Selecting one or more period, for example 'Jurassic'.
Theme
A term used to group together related samples that are not already gathered into a single Collection. For instance, there is a ‘SW England granites’ theme that includes such rock types as granite, hydrothermal breccia, skarn and vein samples.
Category
A general term used to label a rock sample. It is a useful way of grouping similar samples throughout a collection. Category names are often, but not exclusively, common rock names (e.g. granite, basalt, dolerite, gabbro, greisen, skarn, gneiss, amphibolite, limestone, sandstone).
Owner
The owner of the sample that appears in the collection. For example, NASA owns all the samples that appear in the Moon Rocks collection
We would like to thank the following for the use of this sample: