Petrified Wood Polished Round Rock Circle Cliffs Utah #O141-175

Product Description

Petrified Wood Polished Round Rock Circle Cliffs Utah  

This is a gorgeous polished round Petrified Wood piece that has been sliced and polished on one face, natural rough on the back.

The Petrified Wood stone slab is 5 inches and by 3.26 inches wide and about 3/4 thick.

It does not stand on its own.

This wood is from Circle Cliffs, near Garfield, Utah.

The second-largest petrified wood forest of its age in North America, if not the entire world, is in the Circle Cliffs portion in the northeastern part of the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. Officially designated as the Wolverine Petrified Wood Natural Area in 1996, this area is includes the commonly called the Wolverine Petrified Forest, and due to the designation and the fact the area is in a National Monument, collecting petrified wood (or rocks of any kind) in this area is now illegal.

The fossil wood is in the Late Triassic Chinle Formation, which forms the generally reddish-colored slopes below striking vertical cliffs of tan sandstone here and throughout the Circle Cliffs region. This formation was deposited about 225 million years ago, in the Mesozoic Era.

Unlike most of the fossil wood in the Chinle Formation elsewhere in Utah and in the more famous and much larger Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, the wood in the Wolverine Petrified Wood Natural Area is typically black. Most of the fossil wood appears to represent Araucarioxylon arizonicum or a type of conifer.

The Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument in Utah was established in 1996. Though from 2017 the boundaries were reduced for a short period, they were restored in 2021 and collecting is illegal in the area.

This piece was from an old collection and was self collected in the 40's or 50's, prior to the establishment of the park.

The Petrified Wood formed when the tree died and was buried by sediments. Minerals in the groundwater then permeated the wood, replacing the original organic matter and turning it to stone. The main mineral is silica, but trace elements in the silica create a variety of colors.

Metaphysical Properties: Petrified Wood is a stone of patience and slow and steady growth.