8.3" Petrified Wood (Dicot) Round - Blue Forest, Wyoming

Petrified Wood (Dicot) Round - Blue Forest, Wyoming #175063

This is a beautiful round of 50 million year old petrified wood from the Green River Formation of Sweetwater County, Wyoming. It was formed when trees died and fell into a swamp where they were rapidly covered by algae. This formed casts that preserved the original bark surfaces of the trees and kept them from decaying. Eventually the algae casts and the spaces between them were filled in by minerals, often in exquisite, crystalline form.

It comes with an acrylic 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.