LARGE TIGER IRON SLAB. ...

Description

LARGE TIGER IRON SLAB
Port Hedland, Western Australia
Found in a more northerly location than the Marra Mamba tiger's eye, this tiger iron slab shows what happens when the layers of tiger's eye, hematite and the other constituent minerals are subjected to much heavier tectonic disruption and pressure. The bands become much narrower and more defined and in place of the soft flowing colors of Marra Mamba tiger's eye, tiger iron presents strong and sharply delineated layers of golden tiger's eye, red jasperlite and shimmering black hematite. The uncanny regularity of the undulating ribbons of color only adds to the aesthetic appeal, shown to its finest advantage in this highly polished piece of natural abstract art.
It is now believed that this banded, iron-rich material represents a "true fossil" of one of the oldest life forms known. During the Archean period (3.8 - 2.5 billion years ago) single celled organisms known as Stromatolites managed to prosper because they had an open niche with no competition. These simple organisms were (and still are) the Prokaryotes or Cyanobacteria; life forms so simple they had no cellular nucleus at all. Billions of years ago, huge colonies of stromatolites turned seawater, sunlight and atmospheric carbon dioxide into the first atmospheric oxygen this planet has known.
This uncommonly large slab measures 56 x 32½ x 5/8 inches.

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