Villa Regina        39°6’S, 67°4’W

Rio Negro, Argentina

Found: before 2005

Classification: Iron meteorite (IIIAB)

History: Meteorite purchased from a person from Patagonia who stated that it had been found on a farm near Villa Regina by a relative.

Petrography: (J. Wasson, UCLA): Observations based on 37 × 26 mm slab, 4 to 6 mm thick, etched on all cut surfaces. Om; bandwidth 0.8±0.1 mm. Heat altered zone ~2 mm wide on outer surfaces. Small FeS nodules, only 8 mm² in a total area of about 2100 mm². No schreibersite was identified. Structure is deformed and fractured. Weathering is minor.

Geochemistry: Co = 5.01 mg/g, Ni = 79.3 mg/g, Ga = 19.3 μg/g, Ge <70 μg/g, As = 4.30 μg/g, Ir = 4.32 μg/g, Au = 0.598 μg/g.

Classification: Iron, IIIAB. The composition of Villa Regina puts it in all IIIAB fields on element-Au diagrams. Its nearest relatives are Mount Wegener and Ssyromolotovo, but it is resolvable from these in terms of Ir and they were found on different continents. It is thus not paired with any other iron.