11.7" Petrified Wood (Laural) Round - Eagle Point, Oregon

Petrified Wood (Laural) Round - Eagle Point, Oregon #24251

This piece is part of an old collection of petrified wood that I recently purchased containing a lot of material from unusual collecting localities. It's 11.7" wide slab of petrified Araucaria wood, a type of extinct conifer. It was found near Knab Utah in the Chinle Formation, which is the same formation as the Arizona petrified forest. Comes with a display stand.

Petrified wood is the name given to wood that has been turned into stone (fossilized) through the process of permineralization. In this process, all of the organic matter becomes replaced by minerals, 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 low in oxygen to prevent decomposition and with flowing, mineral-laden water, so minerals may replace structures. The coloration is caused by various minerals that present in that water during fossilization. For example, red colors are due to iron compounds, greens due to copper, and so on.