120711 - Meteorite fall near Jalangi, India

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120711 - Meteorite fall near Jalangi, India

Postby David Entwistle » Wed Jul 11, 2012 5:20 pm

As reported on the Met List, and now confirmed by the Geological Survey of India, there has been a second meteorite fall in India within a few weeks. The most recent fall occurred near Jalangi, Murshidabad, West Bengal, near the Indian border with Bangladesh The fall is reported to have occurred at 05:15 local time on the 8th July 2012 (23:45 UTC on the 7th July 2012). See here for the GSI report.

A newspaper report appeared on 09.07.12, describing a meteorite fall at around 5-15am of 08.07.2012 witnessed by the villagers of Sarkarpara near Jalangi area in Murshidabad district, W.Bengal, about 220 km from Calcutta. The stone was taken into the custody by the local police station within three hours of the fall. On the basis of newspaper report, the District Magistrate as well as the Superintendent of the Police, Murshidabad district were contacted by the Director Central Petrological Laboratory, Geological Survey of India, Central Headquarters, Kolkata immediately to confirm the news. Both the State Government officers confirmed of the fall and agreed to hand over the sample to GSI. Two officers of GSI, Dr. M. Moitra and Dr. S. Nandy immediately rushed to the spot and collected the meteorite piece weighing about 2 kg from the State Government officers on 10th July 2012


The meteorite is described as follows:

The meteorite is roughly pyramidal in shape with a flat base and four complete surfaces, covered almost fully by thin black to brown coloured fusion crust. The surfaces are smooth, well ablated with traces of flow lines. A few numbers of shallow regmaglypts along with one slightly deep and compound variety are noted on frontal surfaces. A number of well defined visible chondrules and minute metallic specks are also recorded. From this first hand study, this extra terrestrial object is confirmed as a chondritic meteorite. Further specialized studies are in progress.
David Entwistle
 
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