I thought the whole 'petrified wood' thing at the state park gift shop was a total tourist trap scam. Then I saw the cross-section under a loupe.

It was at the Petrified Forest in Arizona. I bought a small slice on a keychain for like five bucks, fully expecting it to be dyed plastic. But I had my 10x loupe in my bag, and under magnification, you could see the actual cell structure of the wood, perfectly replaced by silica. The rings, the grain, everything. It was a rock, but it was a tree. Blew my mind. What's something basic in geology that actually stunned you when you saw the details up close?

2 comments

2 Comments

uma_lopez7d ago

Oh, it's actually a national park, not a state park.

wrenstone7d ago

Remember getting lost in a national park once. Took a wrong turn and ended up on a service road. Took hours to find the main trail again.