Gibeon Meteorite

Gibeon was not an observed fall; it is a shower of iron masses scattered over a wide strewn field in southern Namibia, centred around the town of Gibeon. The Meteoritical Bulletin records it as found in 1836, with a total known mass of about 26 tonnes, and lists dozens of local names (such as Bethany, Mukerop and Great Fish River) as synonyms for pieces of the same meteorite. Namibia's National Heritage Council records that 100–150 specimens had been found. The AMNH notes that Gibeon has finer crystals than Owens Valley despite slightly less nickel, probably because it cooled faster in a smaller parent asteroid.

Genuine Gibeon is heavy, magnetic iron-nickel metal, and after cutting and etching with dilute nitric acid it shows a fine Widmanstätten pattern of interlocking kamacite and taenite bands about 1 mm wide or less; according to the AMNH, metal with a Widmanstätten pattern must come from a meteorite. Etched meteorite jewellery is often plated: GIA examined bright white, rhodium-plated etched iron meteorite pieces (the meteorite was not named) that were first suspected to be imitations, and found genuine octahedrite metal under layers of rhodium, nickel and copper. The Japanese retailer Pascle states that the silver colour of ordinary Gibeon round beads comes from rhodium coating, and that gold- and pink-gold-coated Gibeon is also sold; the coating colour is therefore not the colour of the meteorite itself.

Gibeon is iron-nickel metal and can rust. Geology.com describes Gibeon as a very stable iron that is not prone to rusting and popular with jewellers, while GIA notes that iron meteorites in general corrode quickly even in slight humidity. Plating is applied mainly to keep moisture away from the iron, but rust can start where it fails to adhere; keep pieces dry, and store them in low humidity or with silica gel.

Local people knew the iron and detached small fragments from it to point their weapons. In 1836 the traveller James E. Alexander heard of large masses of native iron in Great Namaqualand; he never saw them, but John Herschel analysed fragments he obtained and showed the iron was meteoritic, and a 2-gram piece Alexander gave to the Geological Society of London in 1838 was transferred to the British Museum meteorite collection in 1911. Between 1911 and 1913 the state geologist P. Range brought 37 specimens to Windhoek. The Gibeon meteorites displayed there were proclaimed a Historical Monument on 15 February 1950.