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A meteorite which fell at Lahrauli, district Basti, U.P. (India) THE FALLA meteorite fall was observed on March 24. 1955 at about II a.m. in Labrauli village, Kotwali Majhauwa, near Amauli of the Basti district (26°47'N; 82°43'E) in Uttar Pradesh, India. A partially crusted fragment of this meteorite, weighing about 250 grams, is preserved in the Lucknow Museum. Figure 1 shows an interior face of this fragment. This is the same meteorite (called Basti) which was analysed by Malhotra (1962) but was later termed as the "lost Ureilite" by Marvin and Wood (1972). We prefer to call it Labrauli after the village of fall in order to distinguish it from the aubrite Bustee. The total recovered mass of this meteorite was at least 900 g. CHEMICAL AND MINERALOGICAL COMPOSITIONThe meteorite is black in appearance with scattered coarse light-coloured grains. It consists mainly oflarge olivines ofsubhedral to mostly anhedral shape. Pyroxene occurs in smaller amount. These mafic minerals are embedded in an opaque matrix. Some are surrounded by metallic or carbonaceous veins (Fig. 2a, b). The percentage of pyroxene in one section studied is about 15% and that of opaques and metals together about 20%. Olivine composition matches that in Goalpara, as shown in Table I. The Labrauli pyroxene is pigeonite W07.7Fsls. CrZ03 = 1.2% and Ah03 = 0.4%. Two analyses of metal show approximately Fe = 92%, Ni = 5.5%, Si = 3.5%; no magnesium was detected.Chemical analyses, made by atomic absorption spectrophotometry of a solution containing a known amount of the meteorite, are summarised in Table 2. Some grains remained undissolved even after repeated digestion with HF. H zS04 and perchloric acid. These were identified as chromium bearing minerals by SEM electron probe and hence the chromium content. given in Table 2 is a lower limit. There are some

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