The Petrified Tree

What Is Petrified Wood?

Petrified wood is the result of a process called petrifaction (or petrification), meaning "to change into stone." The process involves mineral emplacement, in which dissolved minerals are carried by groundwater into the porous parts of buried wood (or shells or bones), where they crystallize out and settle, filling the pores.

An object so impregnated with minerals is denser, heavier, and more resistant to destruction than it was originally. The term petrifaction is also used to designate the process in which minerals completely replace the original material, which has been slowly dissolving away.

A distinction is sometimes made between these two processes, the first being referred to as permineralization, the latter being called mineralization.

This petrified tree was found during some recent excavation being done on the Double S Ranch. The ranch sits on rich coal deposits, and this petrified tree was found after digging about 40 feet down.

The thinking of how this tree came about is that about 5 millions years ago the ranch was swamp land and that this tree simply fell due to the wetness of the marshland and fell onto an area of coal deposits.