What is Petrified Wood?
When a tree is buried in mud, sand, gravel or volcanic ash quickly and deeply as a result of a floor, volcanic eruption or other catastrophic event, it will fossilize. This process is called petrification, in which organic material in the tree is replaced by minerals.
Petrified Wood is found worldwide and can help scientists determine the environment of the past because the petrification process can protect the original composition of the wood with complete detail.
The most famous place to visit petrified wood is the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. This dry region used to be a tropical climate covered by dense forest some 225 million years ago, as evidenced by the petrified trees found in the area.
This is a relatively hard stone at 6.5-7.5 on Mohs Scale of Hardness.
Metaphysical Meaning of Petrified Wood
- Petrified Wood has a grounding energy and is great to connect with Earth energies
- Petrified Wood aids in transformations, helping you to be the best you can
- Petrified Wood provides protection against injury.
How to Use Petrified Wood
- Decorate the home with nature's Petrified Wood sculptures and dishware
- Place Petrified Wood in your workplace for practical thinking and business success.
- Wear Petrified Wood jewelry to aid the skin.
- Hold Petrified Wood during past life regressions for its inherent link with the past.
- Place Petrified Wood over the abdomen to aid in healing internal infections.
Mineral Meaning of Petrified Wood
Surface Color: Multi-Colored
Streak Color (can vary from surface color, this is the color of the crystals’ powdered minerals): White
Group: Silicates
Hardness: 7
Cleavage (where the crystal breaks off naturally to form a new face, parallel to its structure. This is a clean break and can cleave over and over again along the same face, retaining the crystals structure): None
Fracture: Conchoidal (clam-like concave like when glass breaks)
Luster: Waxy
Transparency: None
Crystal System: Rhombohedral microcrystalline
Crystal Habit: Crystalline Silica
Petrified Wood Jewelry
Petrified Wood takes a great polish, making it a wonderful stone for jewelry. It is often used in lapidary work and cut into shapes for bookends, table tops, clock faces and dishes, but suitable pieces for these large tasks are hard to find because most of it is full of organic fractures and voids. Small pieces of Petrified Wood stone are just as beautiful and make great necklaces, bracelets, and rings.