Villa Regina (IIIAB, Om)

This is a beautiful, rare iron from the Rio Negro region of Patagonia. The provisional name for this IIIAB octahedrite is 'Villa Regina'. Villa Regina has a unique composition with its closest known compositional "relative" being the Russian iron Ssyromolotovo. The TKW of Villa Regina is only 5.03kg before cutting, (only about 3.7kg after cutting) meaning that there is not very much of this beautiful iron to go around. This meteorite has an interesting heat altered zone extending about 2mm in from its crust. UCLA's Dr. Wasson describes this meteorite as follows : "Observations based on 37X26mm slab, 4 to 6mm thick, etched on all cut surfaces. Om; b.w 0.8±0.1mm. Heat altered zone ~2mm wide on outer surfaces. Small FeS nodules, only 8mm² in a total area of about 2100mm². No schreibersite was identified. Structure is deformed and fractured, perhaps by impacts in space. Weathering is minor."The final elemental composition, as determined by replicate analysis at UCLA is: Cr 139µg/g , Co 5.01mg/g, Ni 79.3mg/g, Cu 164µg/g, Ga 19.3µg/g, Ge <70µg/g, As 4.3µg/g, W 1.06µg/g, Ir 4.32µg/g, Pt 13.9µg/g, Au 0.598µg/g.