The Petrified Forest National Park was the second major stop along our aforementioned cross-country tour. These trees were rapidly & deeply buried by volcanic ash roughly 200 million years ago, quickly enough & deeply enough that their contact with oxygen was cut off and their decay thereby slowed enough to allow silica and other minerals to steadily be absorbed by them over thousands of years, crystallizing within the trees’ cellular structure and completely replacing their organic material over time. The petrified wood found in the park and the surrounding region is made up of almost solid quartz, making each piece essentially a giant crystal, with the brilliant colors therein coming mainly from three minerals: pure quartz being white, manganese oxides forming blues, purples, blacks, and browns, and iron oxides providing warmer hues — from yellow through red to brown …

“What we do see depends mainly on what we look for. … In the same field the geologists will see the fossils, the botanists the trees, the artists the form & shade & coloring … Though we may all look at the same things, it does not all follow that we will all see them all.” ~ inspired by John Lubbock

Filed under: My Life in Pictures by Scaughdt