![]() ![]() It also corresponds to the root and third-eye chakras. Petrified Wood is great for anyone who lives in a city and would like to feel a more immediate connection to nature and the Earth. ![]() It is named a “worry stone” that helps us to not sweat the small stuff. Petrified Wood is a favorite amongst metaphysicians for its good vibes and physical benefits. Much like the eruption of Mount Vesuvius preserved a city beneath the soil for thousands of years-the addition of the ash smothered the organic material and left it to petrification. These ancient trees stood 200 feet tall and 9 feet in diameter.Īfter the forest was covered, nearby volcanic eruptions scattered ash and high silica debris across the land. Storms and flooding filled the once tropical lowlands of the area with sediment, mud and mineral rich water to cover the dense thick of trees. One of the most famous petrified forests in the United States-Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona-holds the remnants of an ancient forest that stood over 225 million years ago! The process can occur under a thousand years, but most petrified wood is millions of years old! Some of the rarest specimens contain vibrant shades of rustic reds and forest greens.Most petrification comes from Quartz Chalcedony mineralization, but other impurities enter the cells to give the specimen rich colorization, such as copper, iron and manganese. The lignin and cellulose of the organic life decays to form the stone mold, but it must become petrified before it fully decomposes to capture the original cellular and stem structures. These mineral rich waters fill the sediment and deposits within the cells of organic life. Petrification occurs when wood or organic material is trapped inside sediment, where it is shielded from the elements including oxygen-which is essential to its aerobic decomposition. Petrified Wood pieces preserve the original shape and cellular structure of a tree down to the microscopic level, so that the rings of ancient trees can be studied by geologists. What becomes so spectacular about this fact is that Petrified Wood, thus becomes a way to study the past with a perfect cellular model-or almost perfect. Unlike most fossils-which are impressions or compressions-Petrified Wood can be found in its own category as a three-dimensional representation of the thing in which created it. When organic material is overrun with minerals such as quartz or silicate, the preservation of the fossil is made possible. Petrified Wood gets its name from the Greek word “petro” that completes the phrase “wood turned to stone”-literally! Because Petrified Wood is just that-a stone. Most petrified wood is millions of years oldĪ collection of these prized specimens can be found in a “petrified forest”.Sometimes it can look so much like real wood that those who pick up a specimen are surprised by the weight of the thing in hand. In the process, the minerals contained within the soil replace the water within the organic cells-and there you have it, Petrified Wood. ![]() What makes Petrified Wood slabs such a popular collector’s item for rockhounds and geologists? It’s certainly a rarity at its finest.īefore this wood has a chance to decay, it must be sealed from the elements to heed oxygen from causing decomposition. Rockology would like to deliver the inside scoop into Petrified Wood. How in the world does petrified wood last so long? It’s made of minerals, of course! Petrified wood is actually not wood at all, but a fossilized form that took on the shape of its former shell.
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