"In part because the USA meteorite market
has been flooded with Gibeon IVA speciments during the past few years, we paid
particular attention to any IVA irons having compositions that approximate that
of Gibeon. We have unpublished data on a suite of Gibeon irons provided by V.F.
Buchwald that document a resolvable range of compositions; Au ranges from about
0.88 to 1.04 ug/g, Ir ranges from 2.6 to 2.2 ug/g. In Fig. 3 we
plot compositions of recent Gibeon analyses that are representative of the
compositional endmembers; mean data are listed later in Table 6 and discussed in
more detail in Appendix D.
"The composition of Albion is very close to
that of high-Au Gibeon. Albion has received attention because of its
crystal-bearing vugs, (Petaev and Marvin, 1996; Marvin, Kempton, et al., 1996)
but some Gibeon samples also contain such (probably shock-produced) vugs (M.
Kilgore, pers. commun., 1996). Although we tentatively list Albion as a new,
unpaired iron, it is our opinion that its provenance should be confirmed by
obtaining testimony from local witnesses at the putative fall site. We also mark
on Fig. 3 the composition of the Kingman iron tentatively assigned to Gibeon
(see Appendix D)."
For the past few months, I have been trying to
find the wheat farmer, K. Oliphant, who supposedly found the Albion specimen in
the vicinity of Albion, Colton, Colfax or Pullman (in southeastern Washington
State USA). My brother-in-law is the chief police detective for the City of
Pullman (the WSU college town). He has searched the phone books, checked with
the title companies and interviewed old timers and has not found a K. Oliphant
or anyone who has ever heard of him or his family.
I e-mailed Russ Kempton (NEMS) over a month ago
about the provenance of the Albion iron, asking if he had any idea how to locate
the original finder??? No response to date. Russ's NEMS
website
http://www.meteorlab.com/papers/albtxt1.htm
contains an interesting item implying that John Wasson did the initial
classification of Albon. It says, in part:
"Whitman County, Washington,
USA
During the winter of 1966 - 1967, a single 12.28
kg iron mass was found in a wheat field adjacent to the Palouse River in Albion,
Washington. The mass was in the possession of its finder, Kenneth Oliphant,
until sometime in 1991 when it was sectioned to determine if it was a meteorite.
Based upon the initial classification by Dr. John Wasson of UCLA as a
Fine Octahedrite (IVA), it was recently submitted to the Meteoritical Society
with the proposed name of Albion, Washington..." Now,
Wasson says Albion is probably Gibeon?
Somebody out there in Meteorite List Land must know the whole story about
Albion, how to find K. Oliphant and where all of the specimens are now
located. Certainly the scientists involved must know where or from whom
they got the sample! H-E-L-P !!!
Regards,
Steve