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Erg Chech 002 is an ancient andesite meteorite discovered in the Erg Chech region of the Sahara Desert in Algeria a couple of years ago. It is believed by 'experts' to be a fragment of a chondritic protoplanet that is over 4.5 billion years old, and is believed (no evidence!) to be the oldest known volcanic rock on Earth. When meteoroids enter Earth's atmosphere (or that of another planet, like Mars) at high speed and burn up, the fireballs or “shooting stars” are called meteors. When a meteoroid survives a trip through the atmosphere, i.e. doesn't burn up, and hits the ground, it's called a meteorite. It is thus very old, it survived a landning on Earth a couple of years ago (it didn't burn up!!!), was found by some tourists and it has now been analyzed! It consists of: Sodiumrich maficigneous rocks that are rare, even on planet Earth. Among meteorites, one of the few examples is Graves Nunataks 06128/06129 (paired stones), which is a unique achondrite with affinities to brachinite. Minor albitic plagioclase also occurs in aubrites and other enstatite achondrites. A very different sort of plutonic igneous achondrite i.e. Erg Chech 002 was found in May 2020 as multiple specimens (total weight >32 kilograms) in the barren desert region of far southern Algeria near the mutual borders with Mali and Mauritania. Distinctive features of this unique unbrecciated (?) gabbroic (??) achondrite are large resorbed pyroxene megacrysts, a relatively sodicbulk composition, andoxygen isotopes plotting below the terrestrial fractionation line. Imagine all that nonsense! And this: Erg Chech 002 contains sporadic large (up to 9 cm by 4 cm) green, yellow-green and less commonly yellow-brown crystals of both orthopyroxene and clinopyroxenes, plus sparse relatively large grains (up to 4 mm) of low-Tichromite. The pyroxene megacrysts comprise orthopyroxene (Fs14.4-31.1 Wo1.2-3.8, FeO/MnO = 16-26, Cr2O3= 0.3-1.0 wt.%), pigeonite (Fs21.3-40.7Wo7.0-5.0, FeO/MnO =17-20, Cr2O3= 0.3-0.8 wt.%) andaugite (Fs14.7-24.7Wo38.5-38.1, FeO/MnO = 15-18, Cr2O3= 1.1 wt.%). They exhibit embayed shapes and reaction rims against the dominant coarse-grained gabbroic groundmass. The groundmass (mean grainsize ~1.5 mm) is composed of clustered prismatic grains of exsolved pigeonite (host Fs 42.3-52.2 Wo 2.9-4.6, exsolution lamellae Fs18.1-25.9 Wo40.8-38.1, FeO/MnO = 18-23) and laths of zoned ol-igoclase-albite (Ab68.8-85.9An26.7-7.1Or7.0-4.4), plus acces-sory Ti-chromite, ilmenite, cristobalite, merrillite, K-feldspar (Or84.1Ab11.3An4.6), troilite, rare Ni-poor iron metal, and rare tiny (1-2 ?m) grains of Zr-rich phase(s), etc, etc, bla, bla. All these elements were formed > 4 500 000 000 000 years ago in the Universe and dropped down on Earth 2020, quickly analyzed by young scientists last year and published as Fake News by Main Stream Media 2020.
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