Deer
Lakes Petrified Tree
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.
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.
