This 20 million year old petrified Palmoxylon or Palm Wood specimen from the Miocene age in Indonesia has been polished into the shape of a plate. Petrified wood is a fossil of an ancient tree. It occurs when deceased ancient trees are turned to stone while retaining their basic structure. When a dead tree collapses into mud, silt, or volcanic ash and is buried, the lack of oxygen prevents the tree from decomposing, and mineral-laden water or mud seeps into its pores. Over a few million years, those minerals crystalize. This process is called permineralization, the organic matter becomes replaced by minerals, while much of the original structure, such as tree rings and veins, is retained. The result is a fossil rock that appropriates the shape and structure of the original tree.
Though rock-hard and jewel-like when polished, petrified wood is a fossil, not a gemstone. The coloration is caused by various minerals that present in that water during fossilization. For example, red colours are due to iron compounds, greens due to copper, and so on. Indonesia is a unique repository of well-preserved wood fossils representing the existence of an ancient forest 20 million years ago. The archipelago reveals one of the greatest deposits of fossilized wood in the world — whole tropical tree trunks that floated down a river after a volcanic eruption and subsequently buried.
Petrified wood has been found in West Java from areas like Banten and Mount Halimun Salak. All products are made from Indonesian Legal Wood certified materials.
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