Mukundpura        26º52’52.5’’N, 75º39’53.7’’E

Rajasthan, India

Fall: June 6, 2017

Classification: Carbonaceous chondrite (CM2)

History: A meteorite weighing approximately 2 kg fell in Mukundpura village at 05:15 hrs on June 6, 2017, on sandy soil in the agricultural field of Mr. Banshi Ram. The impact formed a nearly circular crater of ~40 cm diameter with a depth of 15 cm. Upon impact, the stone shattered into several large pieces and multiple gram and subgram-sized fragments. Mr. Banshi Ram observed a bright red-yellow colored burning fragment fall with a thundering sound about 100 m away from his house. They informed the nearby Bhankrota police station, where the large pieces were deposited. The fall of meteorite in the Mukundpura Village was reported in the media. Dr. Anil D. Shukla and Dr. D. Ray visited the fall site two days after the fall and acquired some fragments from the local villagers, with the help of police.

Physical characteristics: The meteorite is covered in well-developed matte fusion crust with a few broad regmaglypts. The interior of the stone is dark black with an abundance of small white spots. There are various clasts (angular to rounded and up to 4 cm across) embedded in the dark colored matrix.

Petrography: The modal abundances avearged from three thick sections include chondrule (~15%), matrix (~70%), refractory inclusions (~2%), carbonates (~7%), Fe-Ni metal (~2%), and sulfides (~4%). Matrix is dominated by serpentine with lesser tochilinite.

Geochemistry: The Fa content of granular porphyritic olivine chondrule is uniform and highly forsteritic (Fa<1, SD=0.13, n=16). The Fa content of barred olivine chondrule is ferroan and composition ranges Fa_32-33(SD=0.06, n=11). The Cr₂O₃ of granular and barred olivine is almost indistinguishable and ranges 0.36 to 0.61 wt%. The Fe/Mn ratios of type IIA chondrule follow the similar trend to the CO chondrites. The bulk chemical composition of Mukundpura chondrite was analysed using XRF and Q-ICPMS. The major oxides of Mukundpura show a very good match with Murchison and Paris CM carbonaceous chondrite. Following XRF data in wt%: SiO₂ 29.5, TiO₂ 0.13, Al₂O₃ 1.3, Fe₂O₃ 32.4, MnO 0.22, MgO 17.4, CaO 1.7, Na₂O 0.59, K₂O 0.05, and P₂O₅ 0.21.

Classification: CM2 chondrite fall.

Specimens: Type specimen 30.5 g at PRL. Main mass ~2000 g with GSI (Based on the report on GSI web portal).