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Anorthosite is a fascinating rock and sparks interest even among those who usually
don’t care about rocks. The reason is simple. Anorthosite is often composed of
mineral labradorite which is famous for an iridescent effect called labradorescence.
You’ll find more in this article: anorthosite and labradorescence.
There are more differences between terrestrial and lunar anorthosites. Lunar
anorthosites are light-colored, while some terrestrial anorthosites are dark. Here
on Earth the cooling of anorthositic magma bodies took very long time. The crystals
which show labradorescence are often very large, even pegmatitic (more than an
inch in length). Lunar anorthosites, however, are quite fine-grained. Only very few
crystals are larger than 1 cm.
Lunar anorthosite is very old. It is believed that it formed when the lunar magma
ocean solidified which probably took place in the first 100 million years of the
existence of the Moon. Lunar anorthosite is believed to be the result of a
gravitational differentiation. Plagioclase is lighter than most other minerals found
there and therefore rose to the uppermost part of the magma ocean. However, the
details of this process are still hotly debated.
Take a look at the NASA Lunar Sample Catalog if you want to see more images and
general overview of the rocks collected by the astronauts of the Apollo program.