BGuthrie Photos: AZ -- Petrified Forest Natl Park -- Rocks and Main

AZ -- Petrified Forest Natl Park -- Rocks and Main:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. PETRCK_060524_100.JPG: Long Logs Trail
2. PETRCK_060524_113.JPG: Long Logs Trail: The Long Logs Trail leads you through one of the greatest concentrations of petrified wood at Petrified Forest National Park. This pileup of logs suggests an ancient log jam created by prehistoric rivers. A half-hour stroll along the Long Logs Trail gives a lasting impression of this amazing stone wood. A trail leads to Agate House, a partially reconstructed Indian pueblo built of petrified wood.
3. PETRCK_060524_123.JPG: Agate House
4. PETRCK_060524_125.JPG: Agate House: A House of Gems: This structure, called Agate House, is a partial reconstruction of an Indian pueblo built here almost ten centuries ago. Indians built dwelling walls like these of petrified wood sealed with mud mortar. Archeologists believe the original eight-room pueblo was built between AD 1050 and 1300. The absence of a kiva (underground ceremonial chamber) and the relatively small amount of cultural debris found at Agate House indicate a brief occupancy. Reconstruction of its rooms occurred after archeological excavation in 1934.
5. PETRCK_060524_201.JPG: The Crystal Forest; Step into the Crystal Forest and enter a mysterious world of ancient trees turned to stone. The brilliantly colored remnants of an earlier geologic age invite you to visualize a changing world. Thoughtless visitors have removed most of the crystals that gave Crystal Forest its name. Please save what's left for future visitors, and report any theft or vandalism to park staff.
6. PETRCK_060524_205.JPG: Triassic Landscape: The dry plateau lands of this region today are far different from the tree-littered floodplains of 225 million years ago during the geologic period called the Triassic. Imagine a forested Triassic Land where crocodile-like phytosaurs inhabited the shores, and other carnivorous reptiles hunted on land. Visualize stormy floodwaters carrying Triassic trees here to the floodplains, where, over time, the trees would petrify. What happened to the animals of the Triassic? Did their disappearance allow the dinosaurs -- which were then just appearing -- to ascend to dominance? Through the study of fossils such as those found here, scientists hope to solve the mystery of the Triassic species' disappearance and find clues to explain other "mass extinctions" that have occurred through time.
7. PETRCK_060524_208.JPG: From Wood to Stone: Approximately 225 million years ago, during the Triassic Period, a floodplain existed here -- littered with fallen trees. Periodic flooding buried the logs beneath layers of salt. Over time, silica-laden waters filtered through these deposits and petrified the wood by encasing the trees' organic material with minerals. Iron oxides give petrified wood its distinctive red, yellow, and orange hues; manganese oxides produce blues, purples and deep blacks, while the original carbon produces the shades of gray. Centuries of erosion washed away concealing sediment deposits to expose these remnants of Triassic woodlands. Could today's woodlands become petrified forests of tomorrow? Geologic forces similar to those of the Triassic period still shape the Earth's surface, and may create the preliminary conditions for future petrification. The processes that created petrified wood here ceased millions of years ago. Petrified wood and other fossils are irreplaceable resources to be cherished undisturbed.
8. PETRCK_060524_210.JPG: Crystal Forest
9. PETRCK_060524_220.JPG: Agate bridge
10. PETRCK_060524_223.JPG: Agate Bridge: Centuries of scouring floodwaters washed out the arroyo, or gully, beneath this 110-foot petrified log, harder than the sandstone around it, resisted erosion and remained suspended as the softer rock beneath it washed away. Enthusiastic visitors fascinate by Agate Bridge worked to preserve it through the establishment of Petrified Forest National Monument in 1906. Conservationists felt this ages-old natural bridge needed architectural support and in 1911 erected masonry pillars beneath the log. In 1917, the present concrete span replaced the masonry work. Current National Park Service philosophy allows the natural forces that create unusual features to continue. If discovered today, Agate Bridge would be left in its natural state. Eventually, the natural forces that created Agate Bridge will cause it to fall with or without its supports. For your safety, and to help preserve the petrified log, please staff off the bridge.
11. PETRCK_060524_230.JPG: Newspaper Rock: More than 650 images adorn the boulders below -- one of the largest concentration of petroglyphs in the park. People who farmed the Puerco River Valley 650 to 2,000 years ago pecked these petroglyphs onto the rocks, leaving a legacy etched in stone. When rocks are exposed to the elements, a patina called "desert varnish" forms on the surface. Native people used sharp tools to chip into this veneer of iron and manganese oxides, clay minerals, and organic material, revealing the lighter colored rock beneath. The various shades of desert varnish are due to the amounts and ratio of minerals present. Blacker shades tend to be higher in manganese oxides, while redder tones indicate a higher amount of iron oxides. The great variety of petroglyphs on Newspaper Rock includes anthropomorphs (human-like figures), zoomorphs (animal-like figures), katsinas (spiritual figures), hands and tracks, and geometrics. Spotting scopes are provided to help you examine the petroglyphs below this overlook.
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AAA "Gem": AAA considers this location to be a "must see" point of interest. To see pictures of other areas that AAA considers to be Gems, click here.
Wikipedia Description: Petrified Forest National Park
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Petrified Forest National Park is along Interstate 40 between Holbrook and Navajo, in the United States. It features one of the world's largest and most colorful concentrations of petrified wood, mostly of the species Araucarioxylon arizonicum.

The park consists of two large areas connected by a north–south corridor. The northern area encompasses part of the multihued badlands of the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation called the Painted Desert. The southern area includes colorful terrain and several concentrations of petrified wood. Several American Indian petroglyph sites are also found in the southern area. Near the south end of the park is Agate House, a Native American building of petrified wood, reconstructed during the 1930s.

Status:

The Petrified Forest area was designated a National Monument on December 8, 1906. The Painted Desert was added later. On December 9, 1962, the whole monument was made a national park. It covers 218,533 acres (341.5 sq mi; 885 km�). Hiking opportunities are limited: the longest established trail in the park extends for only two miles; the others are one mile (1.6 km) or less. Backcountry camping and hiking are allowed by permit only. A 28-mile (45 km) long road runs through much of the park. Landmarks include the Agate House, built of petrified wood, and the Agate Bridge, a petrified log spanning a wash.
Structures made of Petrified Wood
Structures made of Petrified Wood

Petrification:

The pieces of permineralized wood are fossil Araucariaceae, a family of trees that is extinct in the Northern Hemisphere but survives in isolated stands in the Southern Hemisphere. During the Late Triassic, this desert region was located in the tropics and was seasonally wet and dry. In seasonal flooding, the trees washed from where they grew and accumulated in sandy river channels, where they were buried periodically by layers of gravely sand, rich in volcanic ash from volcanoes further to the west. The volcanic ash was the source of the silica that helped to permineralize the buried logs, replacing wood with silica, colored with oxides of iron and manganese. Several major and many smaller concentrations of petrified wood occur in the park, corresponding to several stratigraphic intervals in the Sonsela Member and aptly named Petrified Forest Member of the Chinle Formation. The major concentrations have been termed "forests" (e.g. Rainbow Forest, Crystal Forest, Black Forest, etc.) although the vast majority of the fossil tree trunks are preserved in a prone position and have been transported at least some distance from their original growth areas. However, in-place stumps of trees do occur in several areas (not easily accessible to the casual visitor), and many of the logs probably did not travel far before burial.

The Chinle Formation at Petrified Forest National Park also has produced abundant fossil leaves, vertebrates (including giant crocodile-like reptiles called phytosaurs, large salamander-like amphibians called metoposaurs, some of the earliest dinosaur fossils from North America), and invertebrates (including freshwater snails and clams).

Much of the striking banded coloration of the Chinle Formation badlands that make up the Painted Desert region is due to soil formation (pedogenesis) during the Late Triassic. These paleosols (ancient soils) preserve evidence of conditions during the Triassic including the nature of the landscape and the paleoclimate. The Chinle paleosols suggest that the climate was dramatically seasonal, with distinct very wet and very dry seasons. This climate was probably similar to the modern monsoon of the Indian Ocean region, and was characteristic of tropical areas of Late Paleozoic and Early Mesozoic Earth when all the continents had assembled to form the supercontinent Pangaea.

Theft:

Theft of petrified wood has remained a problem despite protection and despite the fact that nearby vendors sell wood collected legally from private land. Despite a guard force of seven National Park Service rangers, fences, warning signs, and the threat of a $275 fine, about 12 to 14 tons of the fossil wood disappears from the Petrified Forest every year.
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