This macro abstract photograph is of a gemstone known as Marra Mamba Tiger Eye, only found in Western Australia. The striking blood red color is from the Hematite content in the rock. I find it fascinating the suspected age of this little eye-catching wonder. I’ve read a few online references to marra mamba being a very old rock. Like times of continental separation old.

Of course, I don’t have any technical way of verifying the age of this particular piece. The striking colors offer hints of fire, dragons, and dramatic planetary change. The minerals within are named after some prominent figures in art and science.

The yellowish bands are Goethite, named after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe of the Goethe Color Wheel fame. A mineral associated with the hydrothermal activity of underwater volcanoes, a mineral found on Mars, and used by artists in contributing to the color of Yellow Ochre pigments. The deep blue is Riebeckite, named for the German naturalist and explorer Emil Riebeck, also associated with water and fire. As such, the Marra Mamba variant of Tiger Eye is a rather rare gemstone.

For what I lack in geological knowledge, my imagination kicks in thinking about the primordial events of ancient earth – fire, water, tiny bacteria emerging in an ocean creating oxygen – perhaps contributing to the origins of life. Growing, evolving over millions of years until it becomes some guy with a camera looking back at such origins in time.

I may never fully understand everything that is going on in this little sample of Earth’s “blood” – but it certainly seems symbolic of the forces contributing to life on this planet, and perhaps many others.