Petrified Forest: Hike Back Through 220 Million Years: N.P.: Arizona.

Stepping back through time Pat and I explored more than 220 million years of Earths Geological History.
The Petrified Forest is an awesome place, being one of the of the few places in the world where you can start a hike from a mesa top, descend through colourful rock strata, each one with its owe geological secrets, finally on reaching on the bottomlands, you have arrived , figuratively speaking, back in the late Triassic period.
The park contains one on the worlds largest deposits of petrified wood.
Where and when did these trees grow?
Well, geologists believe that they grew in the late Triassic period, along a river system, on the western edge of the super continent Pangaea, a massive landmass from which today's continents were born.
These beautiful, jewel like petrified logs retained their original shape, but during the petrification process the inner cellular structure was totally replaced by quartz crystal types :clear quartz, purple amethyst, yellow citrine and smoky quartz.
Petrified wood is regarded as semi - precious gems.
It is unlawful to steal even the smallest of fragments.
Enjoy the Video

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Thanks for a great expose I was lucky enough to inherit three samples which were purchased from the gift shop at the park back in the 1940s