Found only in the blue crocidolite seams of the Hamersley Range in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, this highly chatoyant ironstone, Marra Mamba, is amongst the rarest and most colourful of all Tiger-eye. Probably stromatolitic in origin, this fossil is amongst the earliest signs of life on Earth, and as a semi-precious stone is also one of the most beautiful.
The Marra Mamba Tiger’s Eye formed during the Early Proterozoic, a formative chapter in Earth’s deep history. This Palaeoproterozoic era was marked by profound planetary transformation, a time when tectonic forces were reshaping the planet and likely driving the emergence of Earth’s first complete supercontinent cycle. The Great Oxidation Event took place over a period of 400 million years at this time, and saw the release of Oxygen gas into the atmosphere - a major event for this history of evolution of complex life on Earth.