Kavarpura                 25°8’36’’N 75°48’48’’E

Kavarpura, near Rawatbhata village, Rajasthan, India

Fall: 29 August 2006; 13:37 h Indian Standard Time (IST)

Iron meteorite (IIE-Anom.)

History: Two shepherds witnessed the fall of a single piece (6.8 kg) in bright day light, and reported to the local police. It is an iron mass with regmaglyphs on the surface. A cut piece of ~20 g has been given to PRL, Ahmedabad for analysis.

Physical and chemical characteristics (Z. G. Ghevaria, GSI, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India, and S. V. S. Murty, PRL, Ahmedabad, India): Polished and etched surface shows Widmanstätten pattern with fine kamacite bandwidths. Optical microscopic observation revealed inclusions ranging in size from few tens of microns to few hundred micrometers across on the polished surface. Qualitative EPMA studies show that some of the inclusions are C rich and some are rich in Si, Cr and P, in addition to Fe, Ni. Preliminary data on siderophiles (Ni 9.5%, Co 0.39%, Ir 1.6 ppm, Ga 6.8 ppm and Ge 5.8 ppm) by ICP-MS and the presence of non-metallic inclusions suggest that Kavarpura can be classified as IIE-Anom. A very interesting feature of this meteorite is the presence of solar noble gases.

Classification: Iron meteorite (IIE-Anom.)

Type specimen: ~10 g piece in PRL, Ahmedabad; the main mass is with GSI, Calcutta.