File:Quartz-permineralized fossil wood (Chinle Formation, Upper Triassic; Petrified Forest, Arizona, USA) 1 (49004642997).jpg

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Summary

Description

Fossil wood from the Triassic of Arizona, USA. (cut & polished slice, CMNH P-26408, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland, Ohio, USA)

This beautiful fossil is from the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation, a multicolored, nonmarine sedimentary unit consisting of coarse-grained siliciclastics (fluvial channel facies) and fine-grained siliciclastics (floodplain facies). Quartz-permineralized fossil wood is famously common in the Chinle Formation (for example, Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona).

"Petrified wood" refers to fossil wood that, while buried in sediments, had its microscopic porosity filled with minerals as groundwater percolated through. This fossilization process is technically known as permineralization ("petrified" is a horrible term - never use it in a scientific context). Permineralization can also occur with fossil bones. The most common permineralization mineral is quartz (~pure silica - SiO2), which is the most common mineral in Earth's crust.

Stratigraphy: Chinle Formation, Upper Triassic

Locality: unrecorded/undisclosed site attributed to Petrified Forest, Arizona, USA
Date
Source Quartz-permineralized fossil wood (Chinle Formation, Upper Triassic; Petrified Forest, Arizona, USA) 1
Author James St. John

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This image was originally posted to Flickr by James St. John at https://flickr.com/photos/47445767@N05/49004642997 (archive). It was reviewed on 7 November 2019 by FlickreviewR 2 and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0.

7 November 2019

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15 August 2009

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Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current03:31, 7 November 2019Thumbnail for version as of 03:31, 7 November 20192,459 × 1,866 (4.5 MB)Ser Amantio di NicolaoTransferred from Flickr via #flickr2commons

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