Gibeon (meteorite)
| Gibeon meteorite | |||
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National monument in Namibia 
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| Monument type | Meteorites | ||
| location | Post St Mall, Windhoek | ||
| Geographic coordinates : | 25 ° 7 '28 " S , 17 ° 45' 58" E | ||
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| Emergence | 4 billion years | ||
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Recognized by the National Heritage Council |
February 15, 1950 | ||
| Deprivation | |||
| Sponsorship | |||
| Website | NHC Namibia | ||
The Gibeon meteorite ( English Gibeon Meteorite ; in the specialist literature also sometimes referred to as Gibeon ) is an iron meteorite , the fragments of which were first found in 1836 in South West Africa , near the city of Gibeon on the east bank of the Great Fish River . The find coordinates are 25 ° 30 'south latitude and 18 ° 00' east longitude. He was first introduced by Capt. James Edward Alexander described. The imperial geologist Paul Range reported in 1913 on individual masses that were discovered in situ on the Pleistocene Kalahari limestone found in the area. Range concluded that the meteorite could only have fallen after these formations had formed. Dating of these layers show an age of 13,000 to 30,000 years. The age of formation of the meteorite itself is given as over four billion years.
31 fragments of the meteorite can be seen in the Namibian capital Windhoek .
Emergence
When it entered the atmosphere , it burst into several thousand fragments, which fell in an area of around 370 × 185 km - the largest known meteorite stray field on earth. The Gibeon strewn field has meanwhile been quite searched, at least 26 t of meteorite material has been found.
The meteorite comes from the asteroid belt and is classified as a fine octahedrite of group IV A, its structure is polycrystalline and shows the Widmanstätten structure . This structure is an unmistakable mark of the meteoritic origin, because there is nothing earthly that has this structure.
Color and composition
Its color is shiny, silvery metallic. The meteorite consists of the minerals kamacite and taenite . It contains the following elements , in mass order, starting with the largest: iron , nickel , cobalt , phosphorus , sulfur , carbon , chromium , copper , platinum , ruthenium , arsenic , osmium , gallium , iridium , rhodium , gold , germanium , Zinc .
Chemical composition: 91.8% iron ; 7.7% nickel ; 0.5% cobalt ; 0.04% phosphorus ; 1.97 ppm gallium ; 0.111 ppm germanium ; 2.4 ppm iridium
gallery
Gibeon meteorite
Widmanstätten structure in the etched surface of a piece from the Gibeon scattered field
Maltahöhe - a shield-shaped Gibeon iron meteorite of 30 kg covered with well-preserved regmaglypts as it was found
See also
Web links
- Entry in the database of the Meteoritical Bulletin
- Fall, find, history and exploration of the Gibeon meteorites
- Map of the Gibeon meteorite stray field with the largest masses found up to January 2010
