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Barbianello: An ungrouped nickel‐rich iron meteorite found in Italy
Author(s) -
Fioretti Anna Maria,
Zipfel Jutta
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
meteoritics and planetary science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.09
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1945-5100
pISSN - 1086-9379
DOI - 10.1111/j.1945-5100.2004.tb00350.x
Subject(s) - meteorite , iron meteorite , homogeneous , nickel , geology , metal , geochemistry , mineralogy , astrobiology , chemistry , metallurgy , materials science , biology , physics , thermodynamics
— An unusual iron was found in 1960 in Barbianello (northern Italy, Pavia municipality) by a farmer, Clemente Allini, ploughing his fields. Years later, the iron was recognized as a meteorite but not officially classified. Our investigations indicate that Barbianello is a unique nickel‐rich ataxite with dark and light regions texturally similar to, but compositionally distinct from, Santa Catharina iron. The light regions are chemically homogeneous, have a Ni content of 27.1 wt%, and a composition similar to irons of group IAB‐IIICD. The dark regions are inhomogeneous with Ni ranging from 40 to 58 wt% and oxygen up to 20 wt%. Relics of unoxidized metal and textural relationships indicate that, unlike Santa Catharina, the dark regions result from the oxidation of a metal compositionally distinct from that of light regions.