14305 - Polymict breccia
Collection:
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Click the microscope button to view a thin section for this sample.
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Fact sheet

14305 - Polymict breccia

Sample 14305 is a clast-rich polymict breccia with a fine-grained microcrystalline matrix. The sample was collected 80 metres from the Lunar Lander Module during the Apollo 14 mission to the Moon and has been dated at 3.82 billion years. The specimen is a composite of soil, rock and mineral fragments welded into a breccia, that was probably part of the Fra Mauro formation, named after the 80-kilometer-diameter crater, and the landing site of the Apollo 14 mission.

In thin section, most of the clasts are microbreccias, although clasts of mare basalt, granite, gabbronorite, anorthosite and troctolite are also present. Several impact events are required to explain the textures observed since the breccia fragments formed in earlier events and were rebrecciated and incorporated in the present rock. The final thermal event produced a melted matrix but it was not hot enough to digest the various lithic clasts.

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

Additional images
  • The sample came from close to the Apollo 14 landing site
  • The lunar surface close to the location of sample 14305
About this collection

Sample details

Type
igneous
Category
mare basalt
Rock-forming mineral
pyroxene
olivine
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: