Puerto Lápice meteorite, Camuñas, Toledo, Castile-La Mancha, Spaini

Regional Level Types
Puerto Lápice meteorite	Meteorite Fall Location
Camuñas	Municipality
Toledo	Province
Castile-La Mancha	Autonomous Community
Spain	Country

Eucrite, brecciated; mass ~ 500 g
10 May 2007 Fall with Fireball

A spectacular daytime fireball brighter than the full moon was seen over most of Spain. Approximately 70 fragments have been recovered as of early 2009, but the total recovered mass was quite modest. Most, perhaps all, of the fragments are less massive than 10 grams. Nevertheless, the recovered pieces of this very brecciated eucrite still have a story to tell. The meteorite's mass is dominated by low-Ca pyroxene and calcic plagioclase (mostly bytownite) which are dispersed into various regions exhibiting both primary basaltic and recrystallized textures. Minor constituents include silica, troilite, and several other opaques (chromite, ilmenite, ulvöspinel). Textural and chemical differences abound. Several coarse-grained regions are richer in both ilmenite and silica than the rest of the meteorite. A fine-grained anorthite-normative clast may represent an impact melt breccia. Plagioclase, pyroxene, and spinels of varying composition, transecting veins, and maskelynite (glass of plagioclase composition) all indicate that this is indeed one very brecciated meteorite. At least three separate shock events have left their traces on different components. All such variations, however, are more or less within the range of known members of the eucritic group. And, indeed, oxygen isotopes and Fe/Mn ratios indicate that Puerto Lápice is a 'geochemically normal' member of the HED achondrite suite.

It may be a while before we are certain that the asteroid Vesta is the actual parent body of most HED meteorites (Howardites, Eucrite, and Diogenites). [This is the current usually favored hypothesis.] Puerto Lápice certainly seems to have come from a moderately large, airless, differentiated world similar to all that we think we now know about Vesta. At a minimum, Puerto Lápice does not present any obvious difficulties for the hypothesis that it is a fragment of Vesta.

Other Regions, Features and Areas containing this locality

References