A meteorite fell at Dhayala ki Chappar, a village 5km NW of Nathdwara on 25^th Dec 2012 has been identified and established as H6 Chondrite.

A research paper published in the May 2014 issue of GeoScience Frontiers, an international journal on environmental science by Elsevier stated that the meteorite that fell in Nathdwara is H6 group of ordinary Chondrite.

According to Vinod Agarwal, Chairman, Faculty of Earth Sciences, MLSU, “The meteorite that fell in Nathdwara was extensively studied at MLSU’s Geology Department. It was also sent to Physical Research Laboratory Ahmedabad, NGRI Hyderabad and Geology Department of Jai Narain Vyas University, Jodhpur for further research. Scientists from these institutions including Dr. G. Parthasarathy, Dr. M.S. Sisodia and Dr. N. Bhandari also collaborated in the research.”

“The fall of meteorite created a loud noise, creating a small crater in an agriculture field. The meteorite had an oblong shape and its longest dimension was 12 cm. It formed a small ∼15 cm diameter crater having roughly similar depth in the field.”

The stone was fully covered with fusion crust and had well rounded edges and well developed regmaglypts (thumbprint like impressions) on its surface, that are formed by ablation of material from the surface as a meteor passes through the Earth’s atmosphere.

The meteorite sample initially weighed about 1.5 kg, which was hammered into several small pieces out of curiosity by the villagers, out of which a 30 g piece was made available to the scientists for characterization study.

High levels of iron, nickel and cobalt were found from the meteorite. Mineralogical studies and petrographic investigations on the meteorite showed the presence of olivine, orthopyroxene, feldspar, and opaque minerals like ilmenite and troilite. Based on all these studies, it was hence classified as H6 Chondrite. This meteorite is believed to be as old as the Solar System itself.

“Further studies on the thermodynamic properties and spectroscopic studies on the Nathdwara meteorite are required to understand the nature of the equilibration process in this meteorite,” said Prof. Agarwal.

Also contributed by Geetha Sunil Pillai

Information and image courtesy: ScienceDirect.com