[meteorite-list] Michael Cottingham's Vigarano on EBay

[bernd.pauli at paulinet.de]

Michael Cottingham wrote:

"It has been a while since I have posted a sale! Maybe nearly 4 months? 
Anyway, I have jumped back in the saddle and I have listed over 500 items
in my Ebay Store!"

I couldn't go to Munich, ... too bad! But I found ample compensation on Michael's
EBay page(s): Vigarano specimens with the "Buy It Now" option. Here's what Michael
wrote on EBay:

"Here is an awesome opportunity to obtain a Very Rare Witnessed Fall ...
An important meteorite to have in any collection. This meteorite is one that
every meteorite collector has heard about... but probably does not have in
their collection!"

Very true! There are some Allende pieces in my collection, an Axtell thin section,
the very rare anomalous, ungrouped NWA 1465 (see David Weir's excellent website
for some very interesting details regarding NWA 1465), a small thin slice of Michel
Franco's Tioulaoualene CV3 chondrite and three slices of Eric Olson's unclassified
CV3 chondrite with CM2-like, dark inclusions. That's it with regard to CV chondrites.

Michael Cottingham also wrote:

"I have very little of this to offer. Try and find some for sale, and if you do,
check out the price. The specimens I am offering on Ebay will be all gone... fast."

So true again because there were only three pieces left about two hours ago.
Like Allende, some Vigarano pieces contain so-called DIs (= dark inclusions),
"aggregates" of fayalitic composition and, in the case of Vigarano, usually
totally devoid of any inclusions. But there is one remarkable feature according
to the information in the reference quoted below:

"an unusual texture comprising a network of arcuate bands. Two or more bands
occur roughly parallel, forming a set of successive parallel bands, some cross-
cutting one another."

This points towards extensive aqueous activity and sedimentary processes
on the CV chondrite parent body.

Michael had two very small (0.63 and 0.62 grams) pieces on EBay, very small
but very affordable, and both of these pieces sported such a conspicuous DI.
They are gone and I'll leave it to your imagination where they will show up
soon ;-)

Reference:

TOMEOKA K. et al. (1998) Arcuate band texture in a dark inclusion from the
Vigarano CV3 chondrite: Possible evidence for early sedimentary processes
(Meteoritics 33-3, 1998, 519-525).


Best DI wishes,

Bernd