14 Facts About Petrified wood

Petrified wood, known as petrified tree, is the name given to a special type of fossilized wood, the fossilized remains of terrestrial vegetation.

Unlike other plant fossils, which are typically impressions or compressions, petrified wood is a three-dimensional representation of the original organic material.

Petrifaction process occurs underground, when Petrified wood becomes buried in water-saturated sediment or volcanic ash.

However, petrified wood is most commonly associated with trees that were buried in fine grained sediments of deltas and floodplains or volcanic lahars and ash beds.

The lack of oxygen slows decay of the Petrified wood, allowing minerals to replace cell walls and to fill void spaces in the Petrified wood.

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Dead Petrified wood is normally rapidly decomposed by microorganisms, beginning with the holocellulose.

Non-mineralized Petrified wood has been recovered from Paleozoic formations, particularly Callixylon from Berea Sandstone, but this is very unusual.

The petrified wood is later exposed by erosion of surrounding sediments.

Non-mineralized fossil wood is rapidly destroyed when exposed by erosion, but petrified wood is quite durable.

Carbonized wood is resistant to silicification and is usually petrified by other minerals.

Boron, zinc, and phosphorus are anomalously low in fossil Petrified wood, suggesting they are leached away or scavenged by microorganisms.

Petrified wood has limited use in jewelry, but is mostly used for decorative pieces such as book ends, table tops, clock faces, or other ornamental objects.

Petrified wood is found worldwide in sedimentary beds ranging in age from the Devonian, when woody plants first appeared on dry land, to nearly the present.

Amethyst Ridge at Yellowstone National Park shows 27 successive forest ecosystems buried by eruptions, while Petrified Forest National Park is a particularly fine example of fluvial accumulations of driftwood.