Petrified Wood

Petrified wood is found all over the world.  It is no longer wood, but stone.  So minutely had the carbon been replaced  molecule by molecule with silica; the stone became an exact copy of the wood – down to the cellular structure.  Scientist once thought the process required long periods of time.  However, if petrification required millions of years, then the wood would decay before having time to petrify.

Yellowstone National Park

The petrification process requires the application of  heat and pressure to wood saturated with mineral rich water.  Heat speeds the chemical reaction of the carbon being replaced with silica.  Molecule by molecule the wood becomes stone.   Rapid burial of waterlogged trees is a more logical explanation for the petrified wood that is found all over the world.  During the world wide flood,  trees would have been uprooted, waterlogged, buried under hundreds of feet of sediment, and then petrified.  It would happen during a flood but not over millions of years.  Given millions of years, wood would rot – not petrify.  Time is an enemy of  the exposed petrified wood as well.  Stone will erode with mechanical and chemical weathering.  Petrified wood is here as a memorial to the World Wide Flood.  A temporary reminder of God’s judgement of sinful man.

Cyprus trunk Rapid City, SD

Sequia stump near Colorado Springs