Black petrified wood?

[Julie L]

Hello to all! I'm an avid sea glass collector here on Cape Cod and have been collecting it for almost a decade on a beach hugely covered by rocks - which I've pretty well ignored until this recently caught my eye. 

 

I picked it up thinking it was just an interesting composite rock but was completely stumped when I saw the wood grain section as well. After some quick internet research I was so amazed to find it seemed to be petrified wood. I think it's safe to say that I probably haven't given such a thing a second thought since a grade school science class so had the contrast in the piece hadn't been so pronounced I never ever would've even thought to look for it.

 

I still have a huge amount to learn about the identification of classifications, but am I looking at an example of black petrified wood? The feel of it is extremely smooth.

 

The last two photos are of a piece I found the other day with some beautiful orange & red transparencies when aiming a flashlight behind it. It would seem like a pretty straight forward piece of petrified wood but perhaps I'm wrong?

 

Ever since that day I've been collecting like mad but I really want to education myself about identifying petrified wood vs agates or other rocks, so if anybody could recommend any books for a reference guide it would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks for your insights.

 

,

Julie

[Rockwood]

Sorry. I'm pretty sure none of these are fossil wood. I'm afraid it is an igneous, or metamorphic rock type.

[FranzBernhard]

Welcome to TFF from Austria!

 

37 minutes ago, Julie L said:

the wood grain section

I can not see it. Is it in the bright part of the specimen? Thanks!

Franz Bernhard

[Julie L]

Thank you for the welcome!

Yes the light colored section is the wood grained part.

I’m waiting on a new iPhone with a much better camera to get better definition but it’s in limbo somewhere like most things lately.

Maybe this other one is better.

[Julie L]

3 hours ago, Rockwood said:

Sorry. I'm pretty sure none of these are fossil wood. I'm afraid it is an igneous, or metamorphic rock type.

Well darn. I’m having fun hunting something new I’m enjoying anyway. There are some sunken trees off shore so maybe something will pop up. 
Thanks for the info!

[Rockwood]

2 hours ago, Julie L said:

off shore

Unfortunately, I'm afraid nearly all the fossils in MA were lost to erosion or plowed out there by glaciers. 

[Julie L]

9 hours ago, Rockwood said:

Sorry. I'm pretty sure none of these are fossil wood. I'm afraid it is an igneous, or metamorphic rock type.

Is it quite common for metamorphic rocks to have a good deal orange & red translucency throughout them then?

[Rockwood]

1 hour ago, Julie L said:

Is it quite common for metamorphic rocks to have a good deal orange & red translucency throughout them then?

I'm not a geologist, but I believe it is. Highly metamorphosed rock has been nearly melted. Crystals become large and compacted.

[Lone Hunter]

As far as colors it depends on the mineral makeup of the rock, the red and orange coming from iron content.  I'm curious what the white bands are? It does look similar to wood grain.

[FranzBernhard]

1 hour ago, Lone Hunter said:

I'm curious what the white bands are? It does look similar to wood grain.

This is supposed to be the wood grain .

I am not certain what it really is, hopefully, member who have seen similar specimens from that area will comment.

Franz Bernhard

[Rockwood]

7 hours ago, Rockwood said:

Crystals become large and compacted.