Goin with carved petrified wood?

[roustabout149]

I continue to find pieces that literally look like animals to me. I don't know what it is, but I can't stop it. I look at it and there it is! Sorry if it makes anybody uncomfortable. I found this piece today and I believe it is petrified wood. Can anybody verify this for me? Thank ya'.
Oh yeah.  Lookin like a Raven to me.

[roustabout149]

Doesn't anybody see it? Does it look like petrified wood? How long does it take for wood to petrify?  Is it old?  Native American or otherwise?  "I'm at a total loss."

[turkeytail]

I see the birds head..even an eye! Not to sure its petrified wood though? Mark.

[Dirty_Digger]

It looks to me like a natural mineral deposit to me. Maybe some iron mixed in it.  But I'm no expert.

[roustabout149]

turkeytail wrote:

I see the birds head..even an eye! Not to sure its petrified wood though? Mark.

  Mark, you made my day! :woohoo:   I seriously have to thank you for your comment.  THANK YOU!!!
Pam

[roustabout149]

Dirty_Digger wrote:

It looks to me like a natural mineral deposit to me. Maybe some iron mixed in it.  But I'm no expert.

  Pretty, pretty, sure that it's petrified wood.  Here's a pic of the other side.  What ya' think?

[gregszybala]

Bluejay, yep

[CousinDan]

Remember them whistles shaped like birds that you filled with water.  They kind of made a chirping sound!  That was my first thought!..Daniel

[painshill]

Hi Pam. Nice birdie. You been diggin' up that yard again?
I don't see the kinds of features I would expect from petrified wood. I do however see the kinds of features I would expect in some types of volcanic basalt. It looks like fine grained, non-vesicular basalt that has heavily weathered. The worm-like structures look like they have arisen from molten flow. Basalt often weathers to yellow Ferric oxyhydrides... I believe that's why Yellowstone Park is so called. Weathering isn't normally as bright as it appears in your first pic (if the colours are true-to-life).
The yellow could also be from olivine. In the interior of your rock are what look like small clusters of yellow and yellowish-green olivine crystals. These so-called phenocrysts are very characteristic of volcanic basalts.
Hope this helps.
Roger.

[roustabout149]

Too much information.  My brain is throwin' out sparks!  I found this in the same field I hunt for arrows, from which I have produced six this year.  There is a certain portion of the field that is abundant with this type of rock.  Volcanic?  In Ohio?  I don't have the time left in my life, nor the intelligence, to learn about what took place on the Earth so many years ago!  What did go on around here???  Thanks for the info.  I'll work on digesting it.

[greywolf22]

It not petrified wood. Not sure what the material is but looks like formed in high heat. Looks similar to basalt.
Jack

[roustabout149]

I have a huge, ugly, rock...that appears it may be the same type as this post.  Not at all sure, of course.  This is one UGLY rock.  Least I think so.

[painshill]

My money would still be on basalt, ugly or not. Don't mean to fry your brain, but:
"Though few people in the United States may actually experience an erupting volcano, the evidence for earlier volcanism is preserved in many rocks of North America. Features seen in volcanic rocks only hours old are also present in ancient volcanic rocks, both at the surface and buried beneath younger deposits" (Brantley, 1994)
Not sure where in Ohio you are, but it you're towards the West then somewhere beneath your feet is a layer of granite about 7 miles thick. This formed about 1.5 billion years ago when the Earth's mantle (the layer below the crust), rose in a dome shape... what geologists call a "superswell". As it carried on rising, it split open and molten volcanic basalt (lava) came flooding through from below. It stopped coming about a billion years ago, leaving basalt deposits everywhere in the vicinity. The main deposit is called the "Middle Run Formation".
Most people expect basalt to be black or grey... and originally it was. But it often contains a fair amount of iron, so it will slowly rust on exposed surfaces. The rust can be any colour from yellow or orange to brown and through to a startling bright red or reddish-purple. Also, molten basalt may have gas bubbles in it which get frozen in the rock as it cools. These bubbles then sometimes fill up with other minerals over the centuries, so you can get speckles and crystals of every imaginable colour.
Never mind those ugly rocks. Just keep digging out those points.
Roger

[Oldham]

Pam
Here are some pics of petrified wood for reference. There are whole exposed trees in my area. You can even see the trunk still in the ground in one pic