Kendrapara

Kendrapara, Orissa, India

Fell 2003 September 27 1830 IST

Ordinary Chondrite (H4-5)

A brilliant fireball with intense greenish hue appeared in the  northern sky and progressed towards southern horizon and was  observed by a large number of people in the southern part of the  state of West Bengal and coastal Orissa. The event led to a  multiple fall along the coastal Orissa. Three pieces of meteorite  were retrieved by the Geological Survey of India (GSI) from  Subarnapur village (20° 32' 22'' N: 86° 42' E), East Suniti  village (20° 27' 30'' N: 86° 43' 15'' E) and West Suniti village  (20° 27' 45'' N: 86° 42' 10'' E) in the Kendrapada district of  Orissa; the weights of the recovered fragments are 490.2 g, 719 g  and 5460 g, respectively. The meteorite samples are dark on unbroken  surface and light colored on broken surface where metals are  readily visible. Rusting is conspicuous on the broken surface and may be attributed to the wet environment of fall. The main mass of  the meteorite has incomplete tabular polyhedral shape. Thin section  study (B. K. Chattopadhyay and A.P.Thapliyal, GSI) shows Kendrapada  meteorite is essentially composed of olivine, pyroxene, abundant  Fe-Ni metal, troilite and rare feldspar. Chondrules of varying  shape and sizes and texture are present but are few in number and  range in size from 0.15 mm to 0.5 mm. Fa content in olivine varies  between 18.2 and 19.6 (n = 22) with an average Fa content of 18.8.   Fs content in  Opx varies from 14.4 to 17.4 (n = 17) with an average of 16.4.   The matrix is fine-grained and moderately recrystallized. Shock stage is S2. Specimens: type specimen 6 kg, Geological Survey of India, Calcutta ; some fragments are with Government of Orissa, Bhubaneswar, India.