602-571-9287
US Dollar
Australian Dollar
Euro
CAD
Shop By Category
Petrified Wood
Petrified Wood is the name for trees that have actually turned to stone!
In order to fossilize or petrify, plants or tree trunks were buried under several hundred yards of sediment, such as mud, water or volcanic ash or lava. Then over the course of time the wood decayed and was replaced by cryptocrystalline quartz, known as chalcedony. During the replacement process by silica carried in underground waters, sometimes even the minutest details of the woody structure were preserved.
The vast majority of petrified forests occur near volcanic action.
The colors in petrified wood are due to the minerals present during the process. Red or orange are due to iron, green or blue are caused by copper or cobalt. Black is usually manganese or carbon and yellow may be uranium.
Depending on the silica content in the ground it generally takes millions of years for trees to petrify. But petrification can occur in a short period of time. Timbers in mines have actually petrified, though they usually aren’t completely petrified or petrified in the same way as natural petrified wood.
Of the billions of trees that ever lived, only a fraction were in the right circumstances to petrify, and only a small fraction of those are solid or have pretty colors or patterns.