The End of a Journey That Began Before Earth Existed

Type 7. The highest metamorphic grade an ordinary chondrite can reach without fully melting. Northwest Africa 15408 spent billions of years inside its parent asteroid, slowly baked by internal heat until its minerals recrystallized into a tight, interlocking mosaic — a texture geologists call granoblastic. Then a collision shattered it into a breccia, and eventually a fragment fell to Earth near Talsint, Morocco, where it was recovered in 2022.

This is the main mass — the largest surviving piece of NWA 15408 outside the institutional type specimen. At 223 grams, it is a substantial, display-worthy specimen that carries the full story of its extraordinary thermal history in every grain.

What Makes LL7 So Rare

Among the tens of thousands of meteorites catalogued by the Meteoritical Society, only 120 are classified as LL7. To reach type 7, a chondrite must have experienced prolonged heating at temperatures approaching 950°C — hot enough to obliterate nearly all original chondrule textures and homogenize its minerals to near-equilibrium compositions. In NWA 15408, only two relict chondrules were detected in the entire section studied. Everything else has been consumed by metamorphism, leaving behind a rock of remarkable mineralogical uniformity and beauty.

The brownish exterior retains patches of original fusion crust — the glassy skin formed as the meteorite ablated through Earth’s atmosphere at hypersonic speed. A reminder that this rock was once a fireball in the sky.

Specimen Details

• Official Name: Northwest Africa 15408 (NWA 15408)
• Classification: Ordinary Chondrite — LL7
• This piece: Main Mass — 223 g
• Dimensions: 67 × 55 × 43 mm
• Total known mass: 101 g type specimen + this main mass
• Year found: 2022, purchased from a dealer in Talsint, Morocco
• Approved: 20 December 2022 — Meteoritical Bulletin MB 111 (2023)
• Main mass holder: Noreddine Azelmat

Scientific Data

• Shock stage: S2
• Weathering grade: W2
• Olivine (Fayalite): Fa31.1 ± 0.5 mol% (range Fa30.2–31.8, FeO/MnO=63±8, n=7)
• Low-Ca pyroxene: Fs26.1 ± 0.1 / Wo2.3 ± 0.2 mol% (n=7)
• Ca pyroxene: Fs11.1 ± 0.4 / Wo43.6 ± 0.5 mol% (n=7)
• Feldspar: An10.5 ± 0.2 / Ab84.8 ± 0.6 / Or4.8 ± 0.6 (n=7)
• Accessories: Minor FeNi metal, troilite, chromite, apatite
• Classifier: A. Greshake, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (MNB)
• Type specimen: 20.8 g held at MNB

Petrography

A breccia composed of up to 5 mm angular to subrounded clasts set in a fine-grained matrix. Both clasts and matrix display a strongly recrystallized texture with abundant triple junctions between adjoining minerals — the hallmark of high-grade thermal metamorphism. Accessory phases include minor partly altered FeNi metal and troilite grains, chromite, and apatite. Only two relict chondrules were detected in the studied section, underscoring the extreme degree of metamorphic overprinting.

Provenance & Authenticity

Officially registered with the Meteoritical Society and published in Meteoritical Bulletin MB 111 (2023). Purchased from a reputable dealer in Talsint, Morocco in July 2022. This is the main mass of a 101 g total find — an exceptionally rare LL7 with partial fusion crust, classified by one of the world’s leading meteoriticists. Ships with full provenance documentation.

Priced at $5.00/g · Main mass 223 g · 1 of only 120 approved LL7 meteorites worldwide.