Mama’s Weekly Rock Facts – Tiger Iron

Tiger Iron Skulls!

Tiger Iron is an altered mixture of layered red jasper, hematite, and tiger eye used mostly for jewelry making and ornamental stone carvings.  There’s not a clear consensus on whether tiger iron is a sedimentary rock, metamorphosed japilite, banded iron formation, or both.  If sedimentary, then stromatolite films may have facilitated the layering of sediments to form the banding.  If metamorphic, tiger iron would form at plate subduction zones where a tectonic plates moves under another and sinks into the mantle.

By Amanda Rice, Resident Geologist, Mama’s Minerals

See Mama’s Minerals selection of Tiger Iron and Tiger Eye