Description
This is a unique shape and it is quite irregular. It is a very fine slab of Petrified Wood. This is the item you will receive, beautiful neutral colors.
This 220 million year old Fossil has been sliced and polished. Polishing allows the inner detail and coloration to easily be seen.
Fossil Petrified Wood Slab. This fossil has been turned into stone (fossilized) through the permineralization process. All of the organic matter becomes replaced by minerals, so while much of the original structure such as tree rings is retained. For this to happen the wood needs to be buried in an environment both low in oxygen and with flowing, mineral-rich water. The coloration is due to the various minerals that are present during fossilization. For example red colors are due to iron compounds, greens due to copper, etc.
During the late Tertiary Period (66 to 2.6 MYA) masses of rainforests surrounded the volcanos of Indonesia. But after volcanic eruptions the trees were buried by ash and lava. Because they were buried so quickly microbes were eliminated. And if these microbes were not killed hey would begin to rot the wood. As it decomposed the wood was replaced by silica rich minerals such as chalcedony, quartz, calcite opal and jasper. The beautiful colors of the Petrified wood slabs comes from the trace elements. Manganese creates blue and black. Traces of Iron would create brown and orange colors.
Petrified wood from the States is very hard to come by because of all the private and federal land. This wood is from Indonesia.
This piece is an irregular 12 inches buy 7 1/2.
