GIBEON -NAMIBIA-
Name: Gibeon
Type: Iron
Structural Classification: Octahedrite, fine
Country: Namibia
Region: Great Namaqualand
Nearest town: Gibeon
Observed fall: No
Fall date: Unknown…..radiometric dating places the age at around 4 billion years old.
Year found: 1838
Chemical classification IVA
Gibeon meteorite was first discovered in 1838. One of largest meteorite strewn fields on earth, the Gibeon field exceeds 40 miles wide and 250 miles long. Scientists believe that this meteorite entered the atmosphere at a 30 degree angle; most of the fragments were found on top of the ground. Assays of the recovered meteorite fragments yield 87% iron, 10% nickel, along with small nodules of graphite, troilite, and traversite, and some fragments have silicate inclustions. Scientists have also identified the rare minerals enstatite and tridymite, both found on earth only in nuclear fusion.
This meteorite displays the Widmanstätten pattern when a cross section is etched with a weak acid. It represents a section through a three-dimensional octahedral structure in the metal that is formed of bands of kamacite with narrower borders of taenite, the meshes being filled with a mixture of these two alloys.