PETRIFIED TREE TRUNK

Petrified tree trunk

Some 200 million years ago, before the time of the giant reptiles, Arizona was covered with a huge tropical rainforest.

The trees were sometimes 60 meters high and 10 meters thick! Many of the trunks are preserved as fossils. Erosion by wind and water, have exposed them again.

Sometimes the wood structure in detail is there.

The colors are caused by deposits of iron (red, yellow and brown), cobalt (blue), chromium (green), manganese and carbon (black ).