PNNL

Abstract

On the night of March 26, 2003, a large meteorite broke up and fell upon the south suburbs of Chicago. The name Park Forest, for the village that is at the center of the strewnfield, has been approved by the Nomenclature Committee of the Meteoritical Society. Satellite data indicate that the bolide traveled from the southwest toward the northeast. The strewnfield has a southwest-northwest trend, however, probably due to the effects of strong weterly winds at high altitudes. Its very low Co-56 and very high Co-60 activities indicate that Park Forest had a preatmospheric mass that was at least ~900 kg and could bave been as large as ~7000 kg, of which only ~30 kg have been recovered. This paper describes initial measurements to identify and characterize the Park Forest meteorite, which is classified as an L5 chondrite.