Fishermans Road Art Gallery

Marramamba Tiger Eye is associated with Mt Brockman Station in the Pilbara, about 100 kilometres north-west of Tom Price. The stone is valued for the way ancient iron-rich and silica-rich layers were folded, altered and polished into strong natural colour.

Origin

Mt Brockman Station, about 100 kilometres north-west of Tom Price in Western Australia.

Age

The source sediments were laid down on the sea floor more than two and a half billion years ago.

Formation

Oxygen in shallow sea water reacted with iron from submarine volcanoes, forming banded iron layers that were later buried, heated, folded and altered by mineral-rich fluids.

Tiger Eye effect

Fibrous riebeckite was replaced by silica, while fine yellow goethite preserved the crystal shape and created the reflective Tiger Eye character.

Colours

White quartz, yellow goethite, red hematite, blue riebeckite, green riebeckite-goethite mixtures, and black hematite or magnetite.

Tiger Iron formed in the same broad way, but stronger pressure and distortion gave many pieces their dramatic folding and banding.

Floating Stones is another business run by the family. Its account of Western Australian Tiger Eye and Tiger Iron offers a closer look at the natural history behind these remarkable materials.