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3.15" Colorful Polished Banded Iron Formation Sphere - Australia
This is a gorgeous and incredibly colorful, 3.15" wide polished sphere crafted from a chunk of a banded iron formation collected in the Pilbara Region of Western Australia. The polish is flawless and it displays beautifully on the accompanied acrylic ring display stand.
About Marra Mamba Tiger's Eye
Marra Mamba Tiger's Eye is a rare type of Tiger's Eye found only in the Hamersley Ranges of Western Australia. Only two deposits have ever produced “true” Marra Mamba, a rare type with reds, blues, yellows, golds and greens.
Marra Mamba Tiger's Eye formed around 2.7 billion years ago when stromatolites and other photosynthetic bacteria gave off oxygen as a waste product. This oxygen built up in the atmosphere and dissolved into sea water. When iron, produced mainly from huge submarine volcanoes, came in contact with this oxygen, it precipitated as iron oxide onto the sea floor and resulted in alternating iron-rich and silica-rich bands, which are now referred to as banded iron formations found in the mineral. These iron bands are often magnetic!
Geological movement over millions of years caused folding and faulting to occur, distortion the layers. Heated fluids passed through the rock and dissolved material and redeposited it elsewhere. Crocidolite, the fibrous form of riebeckite interspersed with the iron bands, was replaced by silica with fine dusts of yellow goethite and other iron-rich minerals. These fibrous bands create the chatoyant effect that gives tiger's eye its classification as a chatoyant gemstone.
Marra Mamba Tiger's Eye is a rare type of Tiger's Eye found only in the Hamersley Ranges of Western Australia. Only two deposits have ever produced “true” Marra Mamba, a rare type with reds, blues, yellows, golds and greens.
Marra Mamba Tiger's Eye formed around 2.7 billion years ago when stromatolites and other photosynthetic bacteria gave off oxygen as a waste product. This oxygen built up in the atmosphere and dissolved into sea water. When iron, produced mainly from huge submarine volcanoes, came in contact with this oxygen, it precipitated as iron oxide onto the sea floor and resulted in alternating iron-rich and silica-rich bands, which are now referred to as banded iron formations found in the mineral. These iron bands are often magnetic!
Geological movement over millions of years caused folding and faulting to occur, distortion the layers. Heated fluids passed through the rock and dissolved material and redeposited it elsewhere. Crocidolite, the fibrous form of riebeckite interspersed with the iron bands, was replaced by silica with fine dusts of yellow goethite and other iron-rich minerals. These fibrous bands create the chatoyant effect that gives tiger's eye its classification as a chatoyant gemstone.
$225
SPECIES
Iron & Chalcedony var. Jasper
LOCATION
Pilbara Region, Western Australia
SIZE
3.15" diameter
CATEGORY
ITEM
#360363
