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Information on pet. Wood near Alpena, Michigan


jugglerguy

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I live in Alpena, Michigan.  I’ve read and heard that there is or was petrified wood in the water around Sulphur Island and in nearby Squaw Bay.  I heard that around the Island, you used to be able to find whole logs of what I think was palm wood.  I haven’t been able to find any, but I don’t really know what to look for except I heard that it is black.  Does anyone have a picture of pet. wood from here?

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Could only find these pictures at this website.

 

Not palm wood, but Callixyon. 

 

worlds-oldest-petrified-wood_1_82ebaacc00f87d0b63ecf0951a831bf6 (1).jpg   worlds-oldest-petrified-wood_1_82ebaacc00f87d0b63ecf0951a831bf6 (2).jpg   worlds-oldest-petrified-wood_1_82ebaacc00f87d0b63ecf0951a831bf6.jpg

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The Alpena area is Devonian.  Squaw Bay Limestone is what is geologically present in Squaw Bay. It is fossiliferous, but contains your typical Devonian marine creatures. Wood is very rare in the Devonian. The piece sited by Fossildude 19 is upper Devonian. Squaw Bay Limestone is lower upper Devonian, whatever that means. I hope  (but doubt) you will find a piece!!!

 

 

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I wonder if you are referring to the old growth timber that fell off the ship and sank. It currently is being salvaged and used.

 

I doubt that there was any palm wood since it is relatively modern, Cretaceous, but no longer grows in the area.

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Palm wood is found from the L.Cretaceous to recent, but mainly in the Cenozoic. There are no sediments of that age in Michigan.

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I was not told that it was palm wood, that was my idea.  I'm not sure why I was thinking that.  I'm not talking about submerged logs from the logging area.  I was just on the beach at Squaw Bay this past weekend and met a blastoid collector named Alex (I forget his last name).  He repeated what I had already heard about the wood around the island.  The island is about a mile off shore from where we were fossil hunting.  

 

Fossildude19, thanks for the pictures, that helps me know what to look for.  

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A Devonian Callixylon Log of the Archaeopteris Tree Found in Marion County, Kentucky

Patrick Gooding1, Richard Smath1, Cortland F. Eble1 and Frank R. Ettensohn2

1 Kentucky Geological Survey, University of Kentucky, 504 Rose St., Lexington, KY 40506
2 Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Kentucky

September 26, 2016 Monday 8:00 A.M. AAPG Eastern Section Meeting, Lexington, Kentucky

 

 

Abstract

A rare fossil discovered in Kentucky gave geologists and paleontologists an opportunity to learn more about the natural history and origin of the rocks and fossils in the state. While excavating on his property in Marion County, a landowner, encountered what appeared to be a tree imbedded in the black shale. He contacted the Kentucky Geological Survey at the University of Kentucky and asked them to investigate the find.

The petrified log was horizontal in the Devonian shale. It measured 20 inches in diameter, and about 13 feet of it had been excavated from the bed however, more of it remained in place. Initial identification indicated that it was Archaeopteris (Callixylon), a Middle to Late Devonian progymnosperm with fern-like leaves and gymnosperous wood (Callixylon is the formal genus name given to the petrified wood of Archaeopteris). A paleobotanist at KGS further confirmed the initial identification. Parts of the tree were cut into slabs and polished for closer examination, which revealed internal cell structures of wood, growth rings, quartz crystals, and fragments of woody material. The cell structures are similar to those of modern conifers. The organic black color and minerals, mainly quartz, were absorbed into the cell structure from the sediments as the log underwent petrification. Analysis of the petrified wood and surrounding material confirmed that the three most prominent constituents, in descending order, were silicon dioxide, aluminum oxide, and iron oxide.

The Archaeopteris tree is Middle to Late Devonian, about 370 to 390 million years old. One possible explanation is that it was transported by ocean currents from a forest located to the northeast, coming to rest in shallow water on the Cincinnati Arch. The trees eventually became waterlogged, sank, and were embedded in accumulating organic-rich black sediments. Or it may have grown in close proximity to where it was found, but no root casts have been found to date.

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