13.7" Colorful Petrified Wood (Araucaria) - Madagascar

Colorful Petrified Wood (Araucaria) - Madagascar #74753

This is a richly colored slab of petrified Araucaria (Conifer) wood from Ambilobe, Madagascar. This 220 million year old petrified wood has been sliced and polished allowing the stunning inner wood detail and fantastic coloration to easily be seen. It comes with an acrylic display stand.

There is a crack that runs through the middle of this wood slab, however there is no indication that there have been any repairs made to this slab.

What Is Petrified Wood

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.