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Pet Wood, Petrified Wood
Petrified Wood
Petrified wood occurs with three major ingredients: wood, water, and mud consisting mainly of volcanic ash.
The petrification process occurs under packed mud when wood is buried under silicate sediment low in oxygen. This environment keeps the fallen logs from rapid decomposition. Mineral-rich water flowing over volcanic ash deposits minerals into the plant’s cells and replaces the cellulose with quartz (SiO2), turning the wood to stone. The original structure of the wood is preserved down to a microscopic level. Because of this intensity in detail, one can observe and conclude what conditions, landscape, and climate might have been like hundreds of years ago.
How long the petrification process takes is based more on conditions such as pH levels and temperature rather than time.
Petrified wood comes in a variety of different shades. Pure quartz is colorless, but when impurities or additional elements are present the mineral takes on various tints of different colors.
Petrified wood on the Mohs hardness scale is the same as quartz which is #7, Diamond is #10
information provided by greywolf22
Lake Livingston in Eastern Texas. That's in San Jacinto Co. about 80 miles north of Houston.
photos courtesy of Ron Kelley
photo courtesy of argohunter
New Mexico:
Arizona:
Photos courtesy of RyanVa
Petrified wood occurs with three major ingredients: wood, water, and mud consisting mainly of volcanic ash.
The petrification process occurs under packed mud when wood is buried under silicate sediment low in oxygen. This environment keeps the fallen logs from rapid decomposition. Mineral-rich water flowing over volcanic ash deposits minerals into the plant’s cells and replaces the cellulose with quartz (SiO2), turning the wood to stone. The original structure of the wood is preserved down to a microscopic level. Because of this intensity in detail, one can observe and conclude what conditions, landscape, and climate might have been like hundreds of years ago.
How long the petrification process takes is based more on conditions such as pH levels and temperature rather than time.
Petrified wood comes in a variety of different shades. Pure quartz is colorless, but when impurities or additional elements are present the mineral takes on various tints of different colors.
Petrified wood on the Mohs hardness scale is the same as quartz which is #7, Diamond is #10
information provided by greywolf22
Lake Livingston in Eastern Texas. That's in San Jacinto Co. about 80 miles north of Houston.
photo courtesy of argohunter
New Mexico:
Arizona:
Photos courtesy of RyanVa
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