Petrified Mushroom?

[DrKrenobli]

Greetings.


Location: Southern Washington State, in the Cascade Range, by a river.

Geologic studies of the area suggest there was a massive landslide at this location over 1 million years ago.

Present day it is a very wet area with lots of fungi.

Material density and hardness appear identical to the petrified wood found at the same spot (highest concentration of petrified wood I've come across in the Cascade Range.

I first thought it was wood until I noticed the direction of the lines seem to be perpendicular to how I'd expect tree rings to be.

Reminds me of some sort of shelf mushroom, though I do understand any sort of petrified/fossilized fungus is extremely rare and unlikely.

I look forward to your input.
 

Edited March 16, 2023 by DrKrenobli

[DPS Ammonite]

Welcome to the Forum.

 

Your piece is wood. You can see faint growth rings (yellow). The semi-parallel light-colored prominent structures that are perpendicular to the growth rings are rays.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medullary_ray_(botany)

[JohnJ]

I agree with @DPS Ammonite.  

 

It may be a partial burl.

[MarcoSr]

The patterns in the piece remind me of an ancient type of sequoia petrified wood with a herringbone pattern that was found in Hell's Canyon which is along the Idaho/Oregon border.

 

Marco Sr.  

[RJB]

I'm not into fossil wood but thats a purty nice chunk!

 

RB

[Mark Kmiecik]

Beautiful specimen. Congratulations!

[Brandy Cole]

What a beautiful, unique piece.  I've seen a ton of petrified wood but never one like that.

[Oregon1955]

Hi there and a warm welcome to the forum.

Beautiful specimen. Do you know what geological formations your creek flows through? I'm generally familiar with formations in the gorge area but not sure you mean that far south in the cascades. Regardless, most rocks in the cascades are volcanic and fossils are few and far between so you may be onto something. 

Getting more definitive answers to what kind of petrified wood you've found and how old it is will depend heavily on the geological formations they come from. Forum experts are happy to assist, if you can give them a little more about the area of your discovery, by pointing you to the right geological maps online. If you're concerned about others using this information to jump your claim, as you should be, you can private message members on this forum without everybody on the internet having access to it. However, even something as simple as "South of Mt Adams" or "south of Mt St. Helen's might be enough for us to point you in the right direction without reveling specifics.

Best of luck to you on your journey of discovery,

Mike