FALL OF MUZZAFFARPUR IRON METEORITE, INDIA

Name: MUZZAFFARPUR.

The place of fall or discovery:  Bahrampur and Man Bishunpur district, Bihar, India; φ = 26º07'N, λ = 85º 31º15' E.

Date of fall or discovery: FALL, April 11th, 1964, 17 hrs.

Class and type: IRON, nickel-rich ataxite.

Number of individual specimens: 2

Total weight: 1.245 kg.

Circumstances of the fall or discovery: In the Bahrampur: A luminous white red-hot ball was seen descending quickly with (ithick dark black smoke)> moving westwards. Three nearly simultaneous roaring thunderous sounds were heard in the north-east direction. Suddenly with a hissing sound a fragment fell in cultivated land, making a pit 13.5 cm deep and 9 cm in surface diameter. It was recovered within one minute of its fall and was said to be hot enough to burn the fingers. The specimen weighing 1.092 kg is irregular and covered by an extremely thin fusion crust preserved especially on the irregular face with regmaglypts. The smooth portion of the meteorite was the front when it fell on the ground. In the Man Bishunpur:  Three thunderous sounds were heard in the N30ºE and the meteorite was seen to fall down with a hissing sound. The specimen weighing 153 gr. is nearly, flat with rounded edges. Fusion crust on one face, rest of the surface is covered with fused material. This specimen fell 3 km southwest of the larger one and fell further along the trajectory of the meteorite. Both the specimens were turned over to the collections of the Geological Survey of India (Calcutta, India). The smaller specimen was obtained to the temporary loan by Dr. R. Dietz (Washington, USA). It was transmitted to Dr. E. P. Henderson (Washington, USA) for the study of the short half-life isotopes in the United States.

Source: Reports of Dr. M. V. N. Murthy (Calcutta, India) in a letter, VI.23 1964 and of Dr. R. S. Dietz (Washington, USA) in a letter, VII.24 1964.