The Beauty of Petrified Wood

Petrified Wood is undoubtedly the most spectacularly beautiful of all varieties of fossils. It is a rare find and only a small proportion of the petrified wood can be cut and polished into pieces which can become prized specimens for collectors who appreciate its beauty. Collectors prize specimens for many different reasons including the quality of the material, the location of the forests from where specimens were sourced and the rarity of the fossilized wood.

Petrified wood is formed when a tree completely transforms to stone as all the organic material gets replaced by minerals. This process is called peri-mineralization. The petrifaction takes place under the ground when the wood gets buried under sediment and this process can take millions of years. The result is a very strong material with the structure of wood. The color is determined by the type of mineral. Depending on the predominant minerals that seeped with the cell structure of the wood, petrified wood has different colors ranging from subtle browns to vibrant blue-greens. 

The black color in petrified wood is derived from the presence of pyrite or organic carbon in the soil mineral. Pyrite sparks when it is struck and is called ‘fire mineral’. A completely charcoal black petrified wood piece is rare and it requires a true connoisseur's eyes to appreciate the textural markings in the subtle variations of charcoal black.