NO MOON IN VIENNA – Fundraising to acquire lunar meteorite Oued Awlitis 001 has unfortunately failed

UNFORTUNATELY THE ACQUISITION OF OUED AWLITIS 001 FOR THE NHM in VIENNA HAS NOT BEEN SUCCESSFUL

The acquisition of the beautiful lunar meteorite Oued Awlitis 001 (410,43 g) for the meteorite collection of the Museum of Natural History in Vienna has not been successful. An adequate long-term curation of this precious meteorite in the world’s most historic and prestigious meteorite collection is thus not possible.

Project ‘Help us to get the Moon!’ has ended

Thank you very much to all who have contributed!

(Contributors will receive a full refund of their contribution.)

Oued Awlitis 001 lunar meteorite consortium

7a8d7fcb367d89c85f514b1adf44deac

photo courtesy of Mohamed Aid

d0e4a3eff67fbe1e11036cf69a4d3b8f

 

THE STORY OF Oued Awlitis 001

“In January 2014 a group of eight people traveling in two cars were returning northward after an unsuccessful meteorite hunting trip to southern Morocco, when they stopped near Oued Awlitis to cook dinner by the roadside. During a search for firewood, Mr. Zaid Oussaid found a buried piece of dead tree trunk, but he could not excavate it by hand. With the use of a pickaxe he was able to pull the wood out of the ground, but he then noticed beside it in the cavity a flat ellipsoidal, brownish gray rock coated by glossy translucent crust with anastomozing wrinkle ridges. Upon returning to his home (at Dwar Ait Gazo, 30 km west of Tagounite), Mr. Oussaid showed the 382 g specimen to Mr. Mohamed Aid, who organized a return trip to the find site on February 21, 2014, and after a search of the area an additional 50.5 g piece which fits exactly onto the main stone was found about 50 m away.”*

Petrology and Chemistry of a Lunar Feldspathic Impact Melt Rock Meteorite from Oued Awlitis, Morocco

Wittmann, A.; Korotev, R. L.; Jolliff, B. L.; Chennaoui-Aoudjehane, H.; Irving, A. J.
77th Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society, held September 7–12, 2014 in Casablanca, Morocco. LPI Contribution No. 1800, id.5352

Oued Awlitis 001 (Washington University in St. Louis)