Ancient Tree Petrified Wood dish
Regular price €332,95Ancient Tree Petrified Wood dish Is amazingly unique, showing the authentic tree interior, polished perfectly with one end of the exterior left unpolished natural showcasing the exterior’bark’ edge. Ancient Tree Petrified Wood dish 5” x 8” x 21/2” - petrified wood from Arizona.
Petrified wood is made up of almost solid quartz. It is the result of tree or tree-like plants completely transitioning to stone by the process of permineralization.
All the organic matter was replaced completely by minerals, including silica dissolved from volcanic ash, and absorbed into the porous wood over eons of time, crystallized within the cellular structure.
Trees washed into ancient river systems, mud flows or were covered in volcanic ash and rapidly buried by sediment. Oxygen was cut off and decay slowed to a process that would take centuries to complete.
The colors in the wood are part of the preservation process. Below are examples of the minerals and their colors found in Petrified Wood.
Red: Iron dissolves in ground water when no oxygen is present, the ground water becomes re-oxygenated as it moves though the tree trunks causing oxygen to bond with the iron. The iron then precipitates to produce a solid form of iron called hematite. Hematite is then incorporated into the log's cell structure. The soluble iron in ground water becomes oxidized into a solid form when it comes in contact with air, causing a reddish stain.
Yellow, Brown and Orange: These colors are produced by the presence of goethite, a hydrated iron oxide, and rarely uranium.
White & Cream: Produced by pure silica. Since silicon, and oxygen, are the two most abundant elements in the earth's crust. silica, referred to scientifically as silicon dioxide, occurs most commonly as quartz. Petrified wood, is a common example of a quartz pseudomorph - wood is slowly replaced, by silica, until not a trace of the original material remains.
Black: Organic carbon or pyrite, the most abundant and widespread sulfide mineral.
Blue: chalcedony, chrysocolla but also cobalt and silica produce blues from pale to deeper shades.
Green: Copper and cobalt
Pink: Manganese
Ancient Tree Petrified Wood dish 5” x 8” x 21/2”
