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Gibeon CAPT. J.E. ALEXANDER first reported the Gibeon Meteorite in 1836. He heard of masses of native iron up to two feet square on the East Side of the Great Fish River. While he did not see the masses himself, he was able to obtain samples for analysis. Undoubtedly, the natives in the area were previously aware of these occurrences, since they were found on the surface. In the years following, Europeans established large cattle ranches in the area and recovered many more large meteorites. A 232-kg mass was recovered in 1857. Many masses between 100 and 500 kg were recovered in the years shortly after 1900. As late as the publication of the Handbook of Iron Meteorites in 1975, scientists were reporting that Gibeon consisted primarily of large masses and lacked the smaller pieces like those found at Canyon Diablo, Odessa, and Sikhote-Alin. Buchwald speculated that greater knowledge might reveal smaller specimens or that natives may have collected smaller fragments and made into tools. It seems that lack of knowledge may have been the answer. In the past year or two increasing numbers of small Gibeon Meteorites have been exported. It may be that with modern metal detection equipment meteorite hunters will locate a substantial number of smaller specimens. The Gibeon was apparently a large meteorite that burst high in the atmosphere, as did the observed fall at Sikhote-Alin. The fragments collected show some of the same characteristics as the Sikhote-Alin specimens. Some pieces show shrapnel-like features and "cold working" (bending and hammering-like deformation). Other specimens show regmaglypts that look very similar to Sikhote specimens. The Gibeon fragments are spread over a strewn field 70 miles (120 km) wide by 230 miles (390k km) long--one of the largest strewn fields in the world. No Gibeon craters have yet been identified.
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Gibeon
Iron, (IVA), fine octahedrite |
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