|
THE GIBEON METEORITE (Namibia)
The fall of the Gibeon meteorite
is the most extensive meteorite shower known on Earth which covers an elliptical area of about 275 by 100 kilometers Most
fragments fell just southeast of Gibeon. To date, hundreds of specimens with a weight of more than 25 tons have been recorded.
All the pictured Gibeon meteorites on this page are part of the PMMC and legally
exported in the 1980ies.
|
|
| Gibeon IVA, Of; Namibia, first found in 1836, 5475 g, with natural patina. |
|
|
| Gibeon IVA, Of; Namibia, first found in 1836, 5610 g, with natural patina. |
|
|
| Gibeon IVA, Of; Namibia, first found in 1836, 4775 g, with natural patina. |
Small pieces of metal were collected
by Capt. James Alexander in 1838. He had heard of masses of native iron on the east side of the Great Fish River. He described
the pieces as being up to two feet square, and sent some material to the chemist John Herschel in London, who established
their meteoritic origin. Undoubtedly, the natives had been using the meteorites for a long time to produce arrow heads, spear
points and other weapons.
The first large piece of 81 kg was carried
by ox-wagon for 800 miles to Cape Town by John Gibbs before 1853. From there it was sent to London, where the mineralogist
to Queen Victoria, Professor John Tennant, purchased it. He forwarded it via New York to Professor Charles Shepard of Amherst
College in Massachusetts, who studied the material in detail. In the following years. Europeans established large cattle ranches
in the area and recovered many more large meteorites. A 232 kg mass was recovered in 1857. By 1910, at least ten pieces of
the Gibeon Meteorites had been shipped to Europe. From 1911 to 1913, the geologist of the German colonial administration,
Dr. Paul Range, collected all the remaining meteorites he could find and mapped them. Specimens were displayed in Windhoek,
and a number of them were also donated to various museums around the world.
|
|
| Gibeon IVA, Of; Namibia, first found in 1836, individual, 1350 g. |
The Gibeon meteorite is classified as fine
octahedrite (Of) with a Widmanstatten bandwidth of 0.3 ±0.5 mm. It contains an average of 8% nickel, 0.5% cobalt, 0.04% phosphorus,
small amounts of carbon, sulphur, chromium and copper, and traces of zinc, gallium, germanium and iridium.
Gibeon meteorites are known as the "King
of the Irons" because of their incomparable stability, beauty and ease of work.
|
|
| Gibeon IVA, Of; Namibia, first found in 1836, 1388 g, with nice shape! |
|
|
| Gibeon IVA, Of; Namibia, first found in 1836, 2174 g, wire brushed individual. |
|
