Lunar Meteorites

Welcome to Top Meteorite's lunar meteorite page. Here we explore the many different types of lunar meteorites found on Earth. Lunar meteorites are pieces of the lunar surface ejected from the Moon when its hit by asteroids and asteroidal fragments that land on Earth.

Lunar meteorites are subdivided into a variety of subclasses depending on their structure and composition. Lunar meteorites are divided into the following subclasses: feldspathic breccia, fragmental breccia, regolith breccia, melt breccia, gabbro, troctolite, troctolitic anorthite melt breccia, basalts, basaltic breccia, and basaltic melt breccia. 

"The Moon is an object of continuous wonder. Throughout the ages every culture has interacted with the Moon in their own way. A collective story told and retold over millennia."

Lunar meteorites are very often brecciated. This gives many of them the distinction of being designated as "breccia". More specifically they are considered "impact breccia". The terms breccia and impact breccia are structural modifiers which do not imply any specific mineralogy or petrology.  Therefore you will note that some lunar meteorites have subclassifications such as "fragmental breccia", and "regolith breccia", etc.  

The impact processes which create these lunar impact breccia can be commutative and are not necessarily only from the impact events that send them to Earth. The surface of the Moon is constantly being bombarded with astroids of all sizes and kinetic energies. This results in the churning and mixing of crustal bedrock and the already loose surface material known as "regolith". This ongoing process can create complex impact breccias by reconsolidating material excavated and transported from different parts of the Moon's surface. This often, but not always, results in lunar meteorite breccias with considerable pre-mixing of material from different locations on the Moon surface before an impact event ejects it beyond the Moon's gravity well.

Below we have summarized some of the key structural and compositional features which characterize the various subclasses of lunar meteorites.

Lunar Feldspathic Breccia - 

Lunar Fragmental Breccia - 

Lunar Regolith Breccia - 

Lunar Melt Breccia -

Lunar Gabbro -

Lunar Troctolite -

Lunar Troctolitic Anorthite Melt Breccia -

Lunar Basalt -

Lunar Basaltic Breccia -

Basaltic Melt Breccia -