Bukhara

Uzbekistan.

Fall 2001, July 9, 4.00 hrs (or July 8, 23.00 UT)

Carbonaceous chondrite (CV3)

One stone, weighing 5.3 kg, fell in a field, 15 km away from the Bukhara city. A shepherd saw the fall and recovered the stone. Later his grandson learned about meteorites in school and remembered about the stone. He thought that it might be a meteorite, and reported about the stone to the Ulugh Beg Astronomical Institute of the Uzbek Academy of Sciences. Shuhrat A. Ehgamberdiev of the Institute sent a sample of the meteorite to the Vernadsky Institute in 2004. Mineralogy and classification (M.A. Ivanova Vernad., F. Brandstaetter NHMW). Fusion crust is well developed, dark gray. The meteorite consists of POP, PO, BO and PP chondrules, chondrule fragments, CAIs, and matrix. Matrix/chondrule ratio is 0.6; chondrule sizes vary from 0.2 to 2 mm, 0.6 mm in average. Chondrules of type I are most abundant. Minor phases are plagioclase, nepheline, jadeite, kamacite (Ni – 5.4 wt%, Co – 0.09 wt%), taenite (up to 47 wt% Ni), sulfides, mostly troilite.  Olivine, Fa_0.9-60; Al₂O₃ – 0.2 wt%, Cr₂O₃ – 0.2 wt%, CaO – 0.2 wt%_, (mean values), pyroxenes are present as orthopyroxene - Fs_1-11Wo_0.6-3.6 , Al₂O₃ up to 8 wt%, pigeonite – Fs_1.7-11Wo_5.2-11, Al₂O₃ up to 4 wt%, augite - Fs_{1.4 – 9} Wo_34-42, Al₂O₃ up to 12 wt%, and fassaite – Fs_0.3-1.5Wo_46-57, Al₂O₃ - 17 wt%, TiO₂ - 15 wt%. Petrological type, 3; shock stage, S1; weathering grade, W1. Specimens:  type specimen, 320.3 g, and a thin section, Vernad; main mass with Sh.A. Ehgamberdiev in the Ulugh Beg Astronomical Institute of the Uzbec Academy of Sciences, Uzbekistan.