Vigarano, CV3

Meteorite types are usually named after the first specimen of a given type found.  For example, in 1868, an interesting new meteorite fell near Ornans, France.  That meteorite was named Ornans, and the chondrite class it belonged to was eventually named “CO”, the “O” coming from “Ornans.”   Vigarano is another such meteorite: “CV” chondrites were named after it.

This meteorite was seen to fall on 22 January, 1910, near the village of Vigarano Pieve, in Italy.  An 11.5 kg stone was found immediately, and a second stone weighing 4.5 kg was recovered several weeks later, a few hundred meters from the main mass.

As with most witnessed fall carbonaceous chondrites, Vigarano has been well-studied: as of 2025, it is mentioned in around 2,600 peer-reviewed publications, and two new minerals have been discovered in it: Rubinite and Warkite.  Both are microscopic refractory minerals found in calcium aluminum inclusions.  Vigarano is also notable for containing some of the first sedimentary structures observed in any meteorite: arcuate bands in a fine-grained clast suggest that dust was settling on or in an asteroid — either due to vibrations/settling in a low-gravity environment, or due to flowing water.

This 4.6 gram part-slice came with a Böhm label dating to between 1925 and 1938.