Castelvecchio and Castiglione del Lago: Two new Italian iron meteorites

Until 2016 only 38 Italian meteorites have been classified and published on the Meteoritical Bulletin Database. Among these, only 4 were irons. We here report the results of the analyses performed on two iron meteorites recovered in Italy. The first one, Castiglione del Lago, weighing 667 g, was recovered in 1970. The textural features observed by means of both optical microscope and SEM, as well as SEM-EDX and ICP-MS analyses, allowed to classify it as IAB-MG iron. The second one, named Castelvecchio, has been recovered at Lignana, near Pontito, in August 2015. In the same locality a fireball was witnessed on October 23, 1986, by Mario Goiorani, a meteorite collector. The main mass, weighing 49.5 g, was recovered inside a hollow. A chip, observed with both optical metallographic microscope and SEM, displayed no kamacite lamellae at the centimetric scale, suggesting a classification as IIAB iron. This classification was confirmed by ICP-MS analyses. Both meteorites have been approved by the Meteoritical Society in 2016 and published in the on-line Meteoritical Bulletin Database