Barbianello

Pavia, Italy

Found October 1960 or 1961

Iron ungrouped (ataxite)

A single mass of 860 g was found by farmer Clemente Allini while he was ploughing a cornfield. In 1972, young Carla Allini showed it at school to her teacher, who submitted it to Professor G. Giuseppetti at the University of Pavia. In 1974, he inspected the meteorite macroscopically and obtained bulk data by atomic absorption spectroscopy and traditional wet chemistry, and identified it as an unusually Ni-rich iron meteorite. Classification and mineralogy (A. Fioretti, UPad; V. de Michele, Milano): ataxitic texture, lacking Widmannstätten pattern; consists almost entirely of taenite (Ni27) with minor plates of kamacite and accessory troilite and schreibersite; severely altered surface, but fresh interior. Bulk metal composition (B. Spettel, W. Huisl and J. Zipfel, MPI): Ni = 27.1 wt%; Ge = 73 µg/g; Ga = 28 µg/g; As = 16.6 µg/g; composition falls at the Nirich end of the IAB-IIICD trends, with Ga and Ge concentrations comparable to those of the Ni-rich IAB’s San Cristobal and Yamato 791694 and to the ungrouped iron Elephant Moraine (EET) 87506, but with lower As than any of these meteorites; based on mineralogical and chemical data the meteorite is classified as an ungrouped iron. See also Fioretti et al. (2001). Specimens: main mass and type specimen, 479 g, Milano.