Photo of a beautiful Gibeon Meteorite
Photo of a superb Gibeon Meteorite

About the Gibeon Meteorite


Our Gibeon rings are made from high grade pieces of Gibeon Meteorite. The Gibeon is a fine octahedrite iron meteorite which flamed into our atmosphere as a visible star-like streak an estimated 30,000 years ago, landing in what is present day Namibia. Prior to this, the Gibeon meteorite traveled through space for over four billion years before it was finally trapped by the Earth's gravitational field and pulled to earth as a fire ball. It is composed primarily of various alloys of iron and nickel, as well as a number of extremely rare trace elements, not found on Earth. It was derived from the core of an extinct planet that was blown apart billions of years ago during the formation of our solar system by a catastrophic impact event. The beautiful crystalline patterns within Gibeon meteorites are known as "Widmanstatten patterns", and are unique to meteorites.

WARNING: We would like take this opportunity to remind people that iron Meteorite jewelry contains iron which is naturally attracted to magnets. To prevent having your jewelry pulled or yanked by a strong magnet avoid strong magnetic fields while wearing meteorite jewelry or Damascus steel jewelry (e.g. MRI machines, powerful electro-magnets, rare-earth magnets, etc.)



Gibeon Meteoriite Ring

High resolution image of one of our Style #002 Seamless Gibeon Meteorite Rings showing beautiful Widmanstatten Patterns.

Not all Gibeon meteorites are of equal quality. We are professional meteorite dealers and experts at the selection and preparation of Gibeon meteorites. Our Gibeons have beautiful Widmanstatten patterns. We have noticed that some of the meteorite rings on the market today appear to have indistinct, grainy or non-existent "Widmanstatten patterns". This can occur through improper selection or improper handling of the meteorite. So, if a Widmanstatten pattern is important to you, make sure that you can see them when selecting a source for your meteorite ring. Widmanstatten patterns can only form over millions of years of cooling. It has been estimated that it took about 1000 years for these molten pieces of planetary core to cool by just 1 degree Celsius! There isn't any material on Earth that exhibits the Widmanstatten pattern of meteorites, and each piece of meteorite has its own unique pattern. The beautiful crystalline patterns characteristic of iron meteorites are more than just beautiful oddities-they tell us about their composition an how long it took for the planetary core from which the meteorite is derived to cool!

Though the Gibeon meteorite was "officially" discovered in the Namibian desert in 1838, local craftsmen had been making spear points and other tools out of the fragments for perhaps thousands of years. The meteorite is etched with an acid to reveal its natural Widmanstatten pattern, which is unique to each ring.

Caveat Emptor: As the price of Gibeon has gone up over the past few years, there appears to be a disconcerting trend of some individuals offering the Rust-Prone 'Muonionalusta' meteorites as stable "Gibeon" meteorites. Muonionalusta meteorites looks superficially similar to Gibeon when cut and etched, however, in our experience they tend to be much more prone to rusting, much more common and much, much cheaper. Muonionalusta is what we refer to as a "Ruster" meteorite. When made into jewelry, Muonionalusta is often so unstable that it needs to be plated with some precious metal to temporarily keep it from rusting away. Buyer beware!


About the Seymchan Meteorite


We have pioneered the use of the difficult to work, Seymchan meteorite in jewelry. Our unique, Seamless Seymchan meteorite rings are made from solid billets of Seymchan meteorite. The Seymchan meteorite was first discovered in 1967, in a stream bed that fed the Hekandue river of the Magadan district, USSR. It has been classified as a IIE coarse octahedrite with main group pallasitic regions. It is composed of approximately 90% iron, 9% nickel and small concentrations of various rare elements. Being a Coarse Octahedrite, the kamacite and taenite bands are larger (coarser) that those in the Gibeon and where they abutt they can have a visible line between the different meteorite alloys. Our Seymchan meteorite rings have beautiful, coarse octahedrite Widmanstatten patterns and no two rings will look the same.


Meteorite Ring Care


Our custom rings are quite durable. That being said, if you want your ring to stay looking nice you should care for your ring as you would any fine jewelry. Some common sense will go a long way in this regard. Don't wear your jewelry while doing yard work, construction work, automotive work, or similar activities or while handling abrasive or corrosive materials. Don't abuse your jewelry, or hit it against hard objects that could dent or scratch it. The Gibeon and Seymchan meteorites tend to be naturally rust-resistant, so while hand washing and showering is, in our experience, not a problem, we do not recommend exposing your meteorite jewelry to excessive moisture. As with any fine jewelry, our rings should not be exposed to chlorine, bleach, chlorides, house hold cleansers or acids (you hands probably shouldn't either). Don't wear your jewelry in salt water, the hot tub or swimming pool. We have noticed that some hand lotions can cause staining of our finger so we avoid wearing hand lotions with meteorite rings. In cold weather or if you go swimming, your finger can shrink quite a bit causing your ring to fall off, so don't go swimming with your jewelry. After a number of years, the etched pattern of your meteorite ring may be less sharp. If this occurs, the ring can be re-etched.



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