What kind of petrified wood is this?

[Mykkhul97]

Hi. I believe this is from Arizona. But not sure of the origin and type of wood. Any ideas would surely help. I have many pounds if this. Please help

[ynot]

Welcome to TFF!

The petrified wood from Arizona (mostly) comes from the Chinle formation, early triassic in age.

It takes a good view of the cellular structure to identify wood.

 

[Mykkhul97]

Do I need to send more pictures to verify? Why is it flat and doesn't look like other petrified wood that I have. Is it common? What can be the value of it? I have much bigger pieces of the same. Any info would be much appreciated.  Thank you.

[FranzBernhard]

Welcome to the forum!

This does not look like wood to me. But it resembles a seam or vein of minerals deposited in a crack. But I am not totally sure about this.

Maybe you can ask a question at

www.mindat.org

 

Franz Bernhard

[caldigger]

I think Franz might be on to something here. 

[ynot]

7 hours ago, Mykkhul97 said:

Do I need to send more pictures to verify? Why is it flat and doesn't look like other petrified wood that I have. Is it common? What can be the value of it? I have much bigger pieces of the same. Any info would be much appreciated.  Thank you.

The first piece posted does look like a vein of agate/jasper, not petrified wood. The other picture shows a piece that does look like Chinle type petrified wood, but better pictures of the three pieces would help to determine if they are all petrified wood.

Setting a value is not done on TFF - against the rules. Also it is very hard to make an appraisal from pictures, to many variables in the equation.

 

 

[Mykkhul97]

It is dense. Has grains going up and down. I don't know the gravity. Im not sure I am asking the right questions. Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you

[caldigger]

To me these look like Gypsum veins with mineral staining.

The "Hills" East of Sharktooth Hill are full of this stuff, but in more of a translucent white/ clearish  state.

[FranzBernhard]

1 hour ago, caldigger said:

To me these look like Gypsum veins with mineral staining.

Thats a good guess and easily testable! Gypsum is very soft and can be scratched with a fingernail. Can you make a scratch with a fingernail?

Franz Bernhard

[ynot]

I agree that these pieces are not petrified wood.

It looks like a mineralized vein, and could be gypsum or selenite.

Can You scratch it with a knife? Fingernail? copper penny?

[Mykkhul97]

Yes. Not my fingernail but a penny did. I took better pics of these. Super hard dense pieces. 

[Mykkhul97]

More pics. Hope they work. And thanks for you work!

[ynot]

The last set of pictures look like jasper, which should not scratch with a copper penny or a knife. They do not look like the same as the other pieces. Would like to see a close up of the earlier pieces.

Are You sure they scratched with a copper penny? Modern pennies are not copper, You need one from the 70s or earlier.

Can We see pictures without the water (wet hides details.).

[Mykkhul97]

I scratched the thinner reddish/yellow pieces. I had a feeling that those other ones were jasper. Sorry for the confusion. These are the ones I scratched with a 1975 penny and it just took some of the red color off. Didnt make a groove. I hope this helps and thank you for your patience

[Sagebrush Steve]

I agree that these look like mineral growths, not petrified wood.  The one that looks like jasper could be petrified wood but I would say that is unlikely.  As for the others, you mentioned that you don’t know their specific gravity.  By measuring it, you could narrow down the choices.  If you are not sure how to do this, here is a post that talks about measuring specific gravity.  For objects of your size you would want to use the “vessel weight” method:

 

Selenite has a specific gravity of 2.9 and gypsum about 2.3.  Gypsum is moderately water-soluble, so you don’t want to leave it in water very long.

[FranzBernhard]

23 minutes ago, Sagebrush Steve said:

Selenite has a specific gravity of 2.9 and gypsum about 2.3.

? - I thought selenite is a variety of gypsum?

 

It seems that all of your specimens are too hard to be gypsum or a variety thereof.

Franz Bernhard