木化石樁

LARGE BLACK PETRIFIED WOOD STUMP
Araucarioxylon arizonicum
Upper Triassic
Chinle Formation, Arizona
The Petrified Forest of Arizona is famed for its "Rainbow Wood", brightly and variously colored by over 200 million years of mineral replacement. Occasionally, however, one finds a dramatically different sort of specimen, such as the present example. The exterior retains the original bark with its attractively rugose texture, whilst the cut and polished face displays an interior of rich, deep black, dramatically enlivened by veins of white, and a small star formation at the center around a core of glittering quartz, approximately 17 5/8 x 14 5/8 x 25 5/8 inches.