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Viñales
Basic information Name: Viñales
     This is an OFFICIAL meteorite name.
Abbreviation: There is no official abbreviation for this meteorite.
Observed fall: Yes, confirmed fall
Year fell: 2019
Country: Cuba
Mass:help 50 kg
Classification
  history:
Meteoritical Bulletin:  MB 108  (2020)  L6
Recommended:  L6    [explanation]

This is 1 of 12727 approved meteorites (plus 11 unapproved names) classified as L6.   [show all]
Search for other: L chondrites, L chondrites (type 4-7), Ordinary chondrites, and Ordinary chondrites (type 4-7)
Comments: Approved 27 Mar 2019
Writeuphelp
Writeup from MB 108:

Viñales        22°37.17’N, 83°44.57’W

Pinar del Rio, Cuba

Fall: 2019 Feb 01

Classification: Ordinary chondrite (L6)

History: A bright bolide accompanied by loud sonic booms flew across the province of Pinar Del Rio, Cuba, at 1:17 pm local time (18:17:10 UTC) on 1 February 2019. A long smoke trail was also observed. The residents thought a plane had crashed, as they heard explosions and then ground rumbling lasting 15 to 20 s. A meteorite shower fell on Vinales Valley, a national monument since 1978 and a UNESCO world heritage site. The area is covered by a forest and fields. The first and some of the largest stones were collected near the monument "Mural of Prehistory" by artist Leovigildo Gonzalez Morillo. Others were discovered in and around Viñales and throughout the Viñales Valley. Some of the meteorite individuals penetrated the ground, one of them broke through an asphalt road, and many were recovered from rooftops.

Physical characteristics: Hundreds of individual samples were collected by the local residents. The stones are covered by black fusion crust with reddish smears of a laterite clay. The substance of the meteorite of light gray color can be seen in small areas of the broken crust. The masses of stones are in a range 2 to 1100 g. In total, about 50-100 kg of the meteorite were collected.

Petrography: The interior is light-colored; silicates are transected by dark, pseudotachylite-like shock veins. The rock is highly recrystallized; chondrule margins are difficult to discern. Recognizable chondrule types include POP, PO and BO, ranging up to ~1 mm in diameter. The meteorite samples contain the several vol% of black inclusions of melt rock. Metal grains range in size up to about 700 µm. The rock exhibits moderate silicate darkening. Chromite grains are moderately to extensively fractured. Some troilite grains and some kamacite grains are polycrystalline. A few kamacite grains contain small rounded grains of troilite within them. Metallic Cu was not observed. There are several small chromite-plagioclase assemblages and some olivine grains contain small chromite veinlets. The shock veins range to more than 1 cm in length and are typically 20 µm to 150 µm wide. The veins contain major silicate and small blebs of metallic Fe-Ni, and to a lesser extent, troilite; these opaque blebs are typically 1-3 µm in diameter. Also present in the veins are cellular metal-troilite veinlets 10-30 µm in length. Elongated aggregates of chromite occur alongside portions of some shock veins. Slabs of Viñales show intersecting dark shock veins, anastomosing veins, and a few quasi-circular melt concentrations where veins intersect. Coarse metal grains are heterogeneously distributed in some samples – some regions of these samples have abundant coarse metal; other regions have none. Near the dark fusion crust, numerous thin veinlets of troilite surround and penetrate fractures within silicate grains. Magnetic susceptibility (J. Gattacceca, CEREGE): log χ (× 10-9 m3/kg) = 4.93 measured on a 18 g sample.

Geochemistry: Mineral compositions and geochemistry: (Borisovsky S. E., IGEM; A. Rubin, UCLA and L. Garvie, ASU) Olivine, Fa24.7±0.3 (N=15, IGEM), Fa24.6±0.4 (n=23, UCLA); low-Ca pyroxene, Fs21.0±0.4Wo1.5±0.3 (N=21, UCLA), Fs20.2±0.3Wo1.6±0.2 (N=15, IGEM); other minerals characterized by UCLA and ASU include diopside (Fs8.1±0.1Wo44.8±0.6; n=5), plagioclase (which has an average size of ~80 µm; Ab90.0±0.5Or1.8±1.2; n=14), chromite, kamacite (6.6±0.6 wt.% Ni; 0.89±0.12 wt.% Co), troilite (containing 0.7-0.42 wt.% Ni), taenite, and accessory tetrataenite, merrillite and chlorapatite. Oxygen isotopes (K. Ziegler, UNM): δ18O=4.38, 4.55, 4.69; δ17O=3.39, 3.50, 3.57; Δ17O=1.08, 1.09, 1.09 (all ‰).

Classification: (Dr. C. Efrén Jaimez Salgado; IGA, Havana, Cuba; C. A. Lorenz, Vernad.) Ordinary chondrite (L6), Weathering grade is W0, Shock stage is S3 (Vernad) or S4 (UCLA).

Specimens: The individual sample of 148 g and one transparent-polished section are deposited in Vernad; 22 g, UCLA; 18 g, CEREGE; 8 individual samples of total mass 2.31 kg are on deposit in Institute of Geophysics and Astronomy (IGA), Havana, Cuba. Large specimen masses are also held by John Higgins, MFarmer, and DPitt.

Data from:
  MB108
  Table 0
  Line 0:
State/Prov/County:Pinar del Rio
Origin or pseudonym:Vinales Valley
Date:2019 Feb 01
Latitude:22°37.17'N
Longitude:83°44.57'W
Mass (g):50000
Pieces:many
Class:L6
Shock stage:S3
Weathering grade:W0
Fayalite (mol%):24.7±0.3 (N=15)
Ferrosilite (mol%):20.2±0.3 (N=15)
Wollastonite (mol%):1.6±0.2 (N=15)
Magnetic suscept.:4.93
Classifier:Dr. C. Efrén Jaimez Salgado, IGA; C. A. Lorenz, Vernad; A. Rubin, UCLA; L. Garvie, ASU
Type spec mass (g):148
Type spec location:Vernad
Main mass:Institute of Geophysics and Astronomy, Havana, Cuba
Comments:Submitted by Lorenz C. A., Vernad
Plots: O isotopes:  
Institutions
   and collections
ASU: Center for Meteorite Studies, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-1404, United States; Website (institutional address; updated 14 Jan 2012)
CEREGE: CEREGE BP 80 Avenue Philibert, Technopole de l'Arbois 13545 Aix-en-Provence Cedex 4 France, France (institutional address; updated 10 Jun 2023)
UCLA: Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1567, United States (institutional address; updated 17 Oct 2011)
UNM: Institute of Meteoritics MSC03 2050 University of New Mexico Albuquerque NM 87131-1126 USA, United States; Website (institutional address; updated 12 Feb 2015)
Vernad: Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry, Russia (institutional address; updated 21 Feb 2016)
DPitt: Darryl Pitt, 225 West 83rd Street, New York, NY 10024, United States; Website (private address)
MFarmer: Michael Farmer, P.O. Box 86059, Tucson, AZ 85754-6059, United States; Website (private address)
IGEM: Institute of Geology of Ore Deposits, Petrography, Mineralogy, and Geochemistry, Russian Academy of Sciences, Staromonetny Per., 35, Moscow, 119017 , Russia (institutional address; updated 16 Dec 2010)
Catalogs:
References: Published in Meteoritical Bulletin, no. 108 (2020) Meteorit. Planet. Sci. 55, 1146-1150
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Geography:

Cuba
Coordinates:
     Recommended::   (22° 37' 10"N, 83° 44' 34"W)

Statistics:
     This is the only approved meteorite from Pinar del Rio, Cuba
     This is 1 of 2 approved meteorites from Cuba
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