MARMET METEORITES

FAMOUS IRON METEORITES
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WHAT IS A METEORITE ?
CLASSIFICATION OF METEORITES
THE COLORFUL WORLD OF THIN SECTIONS
THIN SECTIONS - PART 2
HISTORIC METEORITES 1: Switzerland, Germany, Austria.
HISTORIC METEORITES 2: France: 1492-1841
HISTORIC METEORITES 3: France: 1842-1934
HISTORIC METEORITES 4: England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland.
HISTORIC METEORITES 5: Italy, Spain.
HISTORIC METEORITES 6: Belgium, Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Norway.
HISTORIC METEORITES 7: Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Latvia, Ukraine
HISTORIC METEORITES 8: Romaina, Serbia, Croatia, Estonia, Bosnia-Herzeg.
HISTORIC INDIAN METEORITES
PETER MARMET METEORITE COLLECTION - US falls / finds
H. H. NININGER and Canyon Diablo
From MOON and MARS
FAMOUS IRON METEORITES
Libyan Desert Glass
Meteorites from Antarctica
The Allende Meteorite (Mexico)
The Hoba Meteorite (Namibia)
PING PONG IN SPACE
MUNICH 2004
MUNICH 2005
MUNICH 2006
MUNICH 2007
ENSISHEIM METEORITE 2005 part 1
ENSISHEIM METEORITE 2005 part 2
ENSISHEIM METEORITE 2006 part 1
ENSISHEIM METEORITE 2006 part 2
ENSISHEIM METEORITE 2007 part 1
ENSISHEIM METEORITE 2007 part 2
ENSISHEIM METEORITE 2008 Part 1
ENSISHEIM METEORITE 2008 Part 2
Ensisheim Meteorite 2009 part 1
Ensisheim Meteorite 2009 part 2
ENSISHEIM 2010
Ensisheim 2011

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.

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Gibeon IVA, Of; Namibia, first found in 1836, 5475 g, with natural patina.

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Gibeon IVA, Of; Namibia, first found in 1836, 5610 g, with natural patina.

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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.

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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.

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Gibeon IVA, Of; Namibia, first found in 1836, 1388 g, with nice shape!

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Gibeon IVA, Of; Namibia, first found in 1836, 2174 g, wire brushed individual.