The obvious question in one’s mind when strolling through the park’s collection of petrified wood is simply: How did these trees get here? Let’s take a brief moment to examine how petrification works.
Guide to Petrified Forest
Trees in the Desert?
While this park today lies in the desolate reaches of eastern Arizona’s Painted Desert, most scientists agree that these trees began life somewhere around the equator, perhaps at some 8-10 degrees north latitude, around what would today be Costa Rica, or somewhere thereabouts.
Over the course of a couple hundred million years, the earth changed significantly. What was once the supercontinent of Pangea split apart and these trees slowly began their migration northward. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and the continual shift of massive continental plates moved large sections of land, much like a child effortlessly moves a lego in a sandbox. These trees, buried in generations of mud and debris, came along for the ride.
The Process of Petrification
Sometimes these old trees were washed about by violent storms in ancient rivers and seas. Sometimes they formed large log-jams that collected masses of organic material which decomposed in their bark. Sometimes they were wet, sometimes they were dry.
Perhaps, just perhaps, sometimes these trees were comforted by the calming presence of the similarly fossilized remains of another ancient life form, such as a crocodile, a salamander or any number of ancient plants, including ferns, horsetails or cycads that may have once grown right beside the great tree. You know, back in the good ol days.
But most importantly, these trees were buried for hundreds of millions of years by layers of sand, silt, and volcanic ash. This effectively isolated the trees from oxygen, which set forth the process of fossilization. Subsequently, water dissolved silica from the ash, and the resulting chemical composition slowly transformed the tree’s organic cellular structure to quartz. During this process, minerals present in the surrounding sediment, such as carbon, chromium, cobalt, iron and manganese created the rainbow of colors currently visible in the tree’s core.
Today, we find our fine trees to be partially exposed from their earthly graves, the surface of that gorgeous painted desert constantly eroding, allowing them to enjoy the sunlight once more. Everyday visitors observe their positions and take photos, scientists take measurements, losers take illicit souvenirs, and some take nothing but the lesson of time and a deeper ponderance of life… perhaps the most valuable taking from this uniquely decorated park.
Guide to Petrified Forest
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