Meteorite Hits House In Louisiana

Meteorite Hits House In Louisiana

On September 23, 2003, a meteorite fell out of the sky and hit a house in
New Orleans, Louisiana. An article about the meteorite fall appeared in the
Times-Picayune on September 27:

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/index.s...4393133640.xml

I've forwarded this article to the meteorite community.
Mike Farmer, a meteorite dealer, was in Arkansas at the time.
After seeing the article, he made a quick trip to New Orleans and
was able to recover some of the fragments of the meteorite. His
photos of the meteorite and the house are here on his website:

http://www.meteoriteguy.com/Neworleanasfall.htm

The total weight of the meteorite is estimated at 20 kilograms
(44 pounds). The meteorite is being analyzed in a laboratory and
Mike Farmer thinks the meteorite will be classified as an H5, or
a common stony chondrite.

Ron Baalke

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http://www.meteoriteguy.com/Neworleanasfall.htm

New Orleans Fall
By Mike Farmer

On Tuesday, September 23,. 2003 at ~4:00 pm, a large meteorite fell in
downtown New Orleans. A single stone fell through the roof of a house, and
destroyed an antique wooden desk, penetrated the upstairs room floor, then
entered the downstairs bathroom, narrowly missing the toilet. It then
punctured a hole through the bottom floor of the house, entering the ground
beneath the home and then shattering into many pieces. The estimated weight
of the stone (in fragments)is ~20 kilograms.

Amazingly, it seems that no one saw or heard and sign of this meteorite as
it entered the atmosphere, and the only report of any sound was made by the
neighbor, who heard what she thought was a car accident at ~4:00 pm. She
rushed outside and saw nothing, then forgot about the sound until her
neighbor came home that evening and came over asking her about why his home
was severely damaged. They thought that perhaps an airplane part had fallen
off and hit the house. When he sorted through the debris, he noticed small
pieces of burned stone, and then realized that it must be a meteorite.

I was visiting my friend in Arkansas when I heard of the fall, my friend and
I immediately jumped on a flight to New Orleans, and made arrangements to
see the lucky owner of the newly destroyed home the next day.

The meteorite is being sent out for analysis and more data will follow when
I get it.

The meteorite appears to be a very fragile chondrite, I saw many small
chondrules, and some metal. My guess is (H5).

[Image] [Image]

Here is a large fragment.Two smaller fragments.

[Image] [Image]

Roy and myself! Roy and Gary Loyd.

[Image] [Image]

The house from the street. The Another view of the impact on the
meteorite impact is only visibleroof. The roof was repaired the
as the light roof patch in the far next morning, so only the patch is
left center of the roof at the end visible in the center (lighter
of the house.tiles).