rollingstone
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since July 2009
Posts: 236
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Post by rollingstone on May 25, 2010 2:18:57 GMT -5
This isn't my sample, but was loaned to me to examine. Thought while I had it I would take a couple of pics and post them. This petrified wood comes from the Ram River area in western Alberta, a river that originates in the Rocky Mountains and ends in the foothills when it joins the North Saskatchewan River (the finder collected it during a trout-fishing trip). Most petrified wood in the central and eastern plains of Alberta (where I find it) is about 70 million years old. I've never found any in the western foothills, and I'm not sure it if it is of the same age or not. The stuff I find in the plains tends to be brownish. This foothills sample is quite black on the cut face (though it appears grey in the photo below because my camera brightened things up and I left them that way as the rings show better in a brighter image). The uncut face is kind of a bluish-grey color -- the second photo shows it pretty much true to real color. The entire piece of wood was about the size of a log of wood you'd toss in your fireplace at home. It was found in the river, most likely eroded out of the adjacent riverbank. I like how the centre of the tree was captured in this piece... I can count 24 rings going from the centre to the left side of the piece. I guess that makes this tree 70,000,024 years old! :-) Don Cut face: Uncut face:
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adrian65
Cave Dweller
Arch to golden memories and to great friends.
Member since February 2007
Posts: 10,777
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Post by adrian65 on May 25, 2010 13:08:32 GMT -5
Beautiful specimen, I especially like the natural end. Is it hard enough to polish?
Adrian
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rons
spending too much on rocks
Member since March 2010
Posts: 450
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Post by rons on May 25, 2010 15:41:44 GMT -5
That is a nice piece of pet wood, the butt end with the other side polished would be a nice shelf specimen...
Ron
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