the.com/tigereye
a stone that fakes shimmering motion by trapping light in fibers that no longer exist
means A golden-brown gemstone, a variety of quartz, prized for its silky band of shifting light that glides across the surface as the stone is turned.
from A plain English compound — 'tiger' plus 'eye' — naming the stone for the obvious resemblance: a glowing, banded slit of light like a big cat's gaze caught in the dark. The shimmer itself, called chatoyancy, takes its name from the French 'œil de chat,' literally 'cat's eye.' The geology behind the metaphor is real: the stone forms when fibrous mineral threads are slowly replaced by quartz, and that fossilized fibrous structure scatters light into a moving sheen.
- how it forms
- asbestos fibers dissolve, quartz fills the ghost lines
- chatoyancy
- the glowing band is light bouncing off parallel fibers
- roman armor
- soldiers wore it as protection in battle
- hawk eye
- its bluish cousin forms from the same trick
- acid bath
- vinegar can damage its silky surface
tiger's eye stone — golden-brown chatoyant quartz from south africa, namibia, and western australia
tiger eye mountain — peak in the cascade range of washington state, 5,953 feet elevation