Pebble from Colorado

[Pebble]

Hello, I'm new to the forum. I have this interesting rock. It is about 7 inches wide, 7 inches tall, 3 to maybe 4 inches deep. I believe it was found a few miles from an extinct volcano, so I'm guessing it is at least partly volcanic. But parts of it look sorta plantlike, or perhaps like teeth. (The tan, tapering rods) and the nearly-lavender part that drapes around the knobby, deeply textured parts looks skin-like. So I'm curious: what is it? I will try to upload photos.

[Fruitbat]

Pebble...

 

Welcome to The Fossil Forum!

 

Interesting piece you've got there.  It reminds me of a piece of wood with lava cooled around it but that is just a wild guess!  Don't take it as a definitive identification.

 

-Joe

[Pebble]

   Cool! Thanks, Joe, I thought they look a little like wood, from a purely uneducated view, so I'm tickled to know someone else thinks so too. But I wonder: how can lava wrap around something plant-like ... or organic ... and cool... without frying the wrapped item into unrecognizable cinders? Do you think the wood may have been sitting in cold water? (I know nothing of the history of the area.)

   Are some types of wood that heat-resistant? I know some tree bark resists fire here in Colorado, but it seems like 'fire-resistant' wouldn't be enought to overcome the scorching heat of lava. ...?

   By the way... I wasn't able to show it with just two photos, but there are several tapering rods; distinctly, two that taper down from the top of the rock and another one or possibly more (the ends of them are less clear) that taper up from the bottom, almost like teeth; but not in a single row... tho possibly in a double row, or two irregular rows at right angles to each other. Or, a cluster. Anyway, at the wide end they are perhaps 2" in dia. At the narrow end, about 3/4". They are uniform in texture across the broken ends of the rods, and the same as the surrounding rock. But on the sides of the rock, where I think the tops of some rods were perhaps broken or burned away, they are almost sponge-like in cross-section. Or - perhaps that's the result of gasses escaping from the lava?

   I also thought they might be some sort of crystal, or mass of crystals, but they don't taper uniformly- there's a bit of an organic sort of welt visible on the one pictured, and the texture of them varies from one place to another so... wood? Maybe... anyhow, it's exciting to begin learning what it -might- be.

[Raggedy Man]

Find this kinda by Creede? Loots like some of the petrified wood that you find around the ATV trails around the silver mine sites.

[Ludwigia]

Welcome from Germany.

[Bobby Rico]

[Tidgy's Dad]

Hello, and a very warm welcome to TFF from Morocco. 

Interesting specimen.

It does seem to be wood in lava. 

Sometimes some of the thicker lavas cool quickly and have a crust that is even touchable (like walking on hot coals) so tough plant remains can be preserved.

Here is a fossil plant fruit in lava from Hawaii.

[Jazfossilator]

Welcome to TFF from Vermont! Cool piece you got there.

[Gizmo]

Welcome aboard! 

[abyssunder]

Welcome to TFF !

[Pebble]

Ok - so if even fruits can survive lava, I guess it makes sense that wood can, as well. Thanks! @Raggedy Man, no, not from Creede. I believe there is an extinct volcano in N.E. New Mexico? and this was somewhere along the road between that volcano and the south east corner of Colorado... but I'm not certain where, or what volcano.  @Tidgy's Dad, that photo of fruit in lava is amazing! Thank you all for the warm welcome!

 

 

[doushantuo]

welcome!

Fossilized wood HAS been found in kimberlite pipes,as I think I pointed out a while ago 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Petrified wood in lave, Humber River, newfoundland, Canada. 

[doushantuo]

Blanches Brook location?

[GeschWhat]

Welcome from Minnesota. Very interesting piece you have there.

[The Amateur Paleontologist]

Welcome to the Forum from the Late Cretaceous of northern France  Hope you enjoy it here! 

[KimTexan]

It is likely the fossilization occurred first and then a volcanic event occurred subsequently.

The minerals in the fossilized wood would have to have a higher melting point than the lava though so as to not destroy the fossil.

 

Fossilized logs have been found which fossilized as a result of the Mount Saint Hellen’s volcano in the 1980s. I can imagine decades from now another volcanic event could happen and you’d end up with a similar scenario to yours with fossilized wood enveloped in lava.

 

[DPS Ammonite]

2 hours ago, KimTexan said:

It is likely the fossilization occurred first and then a volcanic event occurred subsequently.

The minerals in the fossilized wood would have to have a higher melting point than the lava though so as to not destroy the fossil.

 

Fossilized logs have been found which fossilized as a result of the Mount Saint Hellen’s volcano in the 1980s. I can imagine decades from now another volcanic event could happen and you’d end up with a similar scenario to yours with fossilized wood enveloped in lava.

 

Welcome Pebble. 

 

Possible but highly unlikely for a piece of petrified wood to fall into a lava flow and be preserved. A lot of wood is buried in the non molten ash water mixtures (volcaniclastics) shed from a volcano are petrified from the silica bearing solutions circulating in the mixture. 

 

The wood from the OP is probably covered in the sediment (not lava), volcanic or otherwise, that originally encased it. 

 

To see wood fossils in hardened lava, go to Hawaii where the current lava flows are creating them. At Lava Tree State Monument in SE Hawaii, you can see many cavities where the lava flow hardened against the water rich trees, then the flow receded away leaving a hollow tower with the exterior impression of a tree. If that hole is later filled with minerals then it is a cast without any hint of internal structure such as growth rings.

 

I doubt very many fully petrified trees have been created yet from the St. Helen's event. That process usually takes thousands to millions of years. I remember someone in the Pacific Northwest drilled into volcanics that contained several layers of wood. The deeper and older they went (they dated the layers) the more silica the wood contained. The wood that was hundreds of thousands of years old was partially silicified while the wood that was a couple or few millions of years old was fully silicified.

[KimTexan]

54 minutes ago, DPS Ammonite said:

Possible but highly unlikely for a piece of petrified wood to fall into a lava flow and be preserved. A lot of wood is buried in the non molten ash water mixtures shed from a volcano and then are petrified from the silica bearing solutions circulating in the mixture. 

 

The wood from the OP is probably covered in the sediment (not lava), volcanic or otherwise, that originally encased it. 

 

I doubt very many fully petrified trees have been created yet from the St. Helen's event. That process usually takes thousands to millions of years. I remember someone in the Pacific Northwest drilled into volcanics that contained several layers of wood. The deeper and older they went (they dated the layers) the more silica the wood contained. The wood that was hundreds of thousands of years old was partially silicified while the wood that was a couple or few millions of years old was fully silicified.

I agree that the covering matrix could possibly be sedimentary in origin. A sedimentary mineralization process appears to have taken place at some point. 

 

I have no idea to what degree the trees from Mount St. Helen and Spirit Lake have been petrified. Your statement seems to imply that  some have been fully petrified. 

 

The occurrence has always been very intriguing and curious to me and I’d love to know more about it. I was in Northern Idaho when the eruption happened. What we experienced was extraordinary to me as a kid. It made quite an impression upon me. I’ve always been curious about anything related to it.

 

However, I was just using an example I could relate to and was somewhat familiar with. I.e. trees in a volcanic environment being destroyed/petrified through a volcanic event. Then later being subjected to an additional volcanic event.

 

 The wood being petrified first is a possibility, which I’m not sure can be ruled out. If the pet wood has tree rings there may be a reasonable likelihood that petrification took place first. 

 

I tend to think hot lava would completely destroy any trees in its path. Although, whether it burned the tree completely or not would depend upon many factors. Such as the heat and viscosity of the lava. The ambient temperatures, humidity and water content of a living tree.

 

I’d like to hear how @Tidgy's Dad the fossilized fruit from Hawaii formed.

[KimTexan]

 

 

On 5/26/2018 at 8:23 AM, Tidgy's Dad said:

 

Sometimes some of the thicker lavas cool quickly and have a crust that is even touchable (like walking on hot coals) so tough plant remains can be preserved.

Adam, I have walked on some of the lava with a cooled crust in Hawaii while lava was still flowing underneath it. It was warm, but felt quite safe to walk on. Lava tube of cooled crust would form. They are almost like underground water and sewer pipes and hot lava would continue to flow through the tubes.

Around the Hawaiian Island you’ll find what they call lava tubes. Some are like huge caves. I’ve walked in a few and swam in one. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Just now, KimTexan said:

 

 

Adam, I have walked on some of the lava with a cooled crust in Hawaii while lava was still flowing underneath it. It was warm, but felt quite safe to walk on. Lava tube of cooled crust would form. They are almost like underground water and sewer pipes and hot lava would continue to flow through the tubes.

Around the Hawaiian Island you’ll find what they call lava tubes. Some are like huge caves. I’ve walked in a few and swam in one. 

Exactly, if it's cool enough to walk on , it's cool enough not to burn hard parts of trees, especially when contact with cold vegetation can cool the lava and solidify it.

See link 

https://lovingthebigisland.wordpress.com/2009/08/24/hawaiis-amazing-lava-fossils/