Petrified Forest
Posted by Pete | Posted in News | Posted on 18-09-2010
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It is amazing in looking at the logs that appear to be cut into firewood lengths. I know that is not correct and there were no guides to ask, but I don’t think I saw a single log that was whole. In a couple of places the logs are close enough to touch and examine. They appeared to me to be pine as the bark gave that appearance. Records show it was formed 225 millions years ago down around the equator and the titanic plates have shifted over time bringing them up to Arizona….Well, I don’t know…It’s hard for me to believe but I don’t have a better story. If you have not seen it, you will want to drive through….Pete
Can one expect a log to be whole after 225 million years? Isn’t it amazing enough that the siliconized, stone version is still around after so many years? It may be wise that one does not give too much credit to tectonic plate theory although the movement of the geological plates over time may be a factor. I rather imagine that these logs simply grew at the place where they fell many years ago and that climate change and other cataclysmic weather and geological events caused their siliconixation and petrification. Scientists are smart, but they are not gods.
I am happy to know that the remains of these grand trees are still around and that enterprising American entrepeneurs haven’t stolen all of them to sale piece by piece in the form of cheap jewery in order to make a fast and easy buck. President Theordore Roosevelt knew what he was doing when he decided to protect these treasures inside National Parks.
Certainly I am not smart and have no knowledge of what happened that many years ago, but that is what the booklet said so I did not argue with it. I just enjoyed the view.