Will vary in size 22mm / 0.87"
Petrified Wood (also called fossilized wood or agatized wood) is a member of the Quartz family, a silicon dioxide mineral with a hardness of 6.5 to 7. Its crystal system is hexagonal (trigonal).
Contrary to popular belief, the wood has not actually become stone. Only the form of the wood remains—the organic wood substance has been replaced by silicon dioxide. Experts refer to this as “pseudomorphosis of Chalcedony (or Jasper or Opal) after wood.” If wood, after death, is quickly covered with fine-grained sedimentary rock, this allows for petrification, which preserves a large proportion of the original form of the wood. Growth rings, outer bark and even worm holes in the wood can be preserved in this process.
Most Petrified Wood is brown or gray, although some pieces contain yellow, red, black, and even blue or violet colors. The most spectacular Petrified Wood locality is near Holbrook, Arizona, where fossilized tree trunks of up to 213 feet long have been found. About 200 million years ago, water deposited the tree trunks in this area, then covered it with sediment hundreds of yards thick. Eventually, some of the fossilized wood was exposed by weathering. The Petrified Wood of this locality is the most spectacularly colored of any in the world, and in 1962, the “Petrified Forest” was made into a national park. Other important finds exist in Egypt, Brazil, and Argentina.