The big trees that grow in California's Sequoia National Park have great-great-great-great-great-great- (+ many, many more greats!) old fossil ancestors that can be found in Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in Colorado. Don't we hear of old guys being called 'old fossils?' These REALLY are.
In Sequoia National Park you sometimes see Giant Sequoia growing in clusters. This picture shows the only 'set of three' petrified giant trees known in the entire world. These stumps, turned to stone were preserved by nature near Colorado Springs. These fossils are now protected by the National Park Service.
How do trees become petrified? The fossilization process known as petrifaction usually begins when a tree or log is buried in silica-rich, alkaline volcanic ash or mud. Water seeping through the ash or mud dissolves silica. If silica-rich water soaks into a buried piece of wood, where conditions are more acidic, silica is precipitated inside the hollow cells of the wood -http://ucmp.berkeley.edu/tertiary/eoc/florissant.html.
The first excerpts from the enhanced e-book, Of Giants and Grizzlies, will soon be released including Sequoia 1 where we learn about the largest living trees on earth, the Giant Sequoia - Watch for it!
The first excerpts from the enhanced e-book, Of Giants and Grizzlies, will soon be released including Sequoia 1 where we learn about the largest living trees on earth, the Giant Sequoia - Watch for it!