Mississippi Petrified Forest

cliff at the Mississippi Petrified Forest The fossil wood of the Mississippi Petrified Forest are part of the Forest Hill Formation, a formation of fine sand and clay, deposited by an ancient river 33 million years ago, during the early Oligocene. The future site of the Mississippi Petrified Forest in the Oligocene was a floodplain, exposed by the retreat of global sea levels at the end of the Eocene where trees, such as firs, maples, and the extinct cypress Cupressinoxylon grew in an riparian environment. The species makeup of the forest suggests that the climate was cooler than modern Mississippi. The now silicfied trees were exposed when the loess overlaying the fossiliferous layers erode away, creating a badlands terrain where fossil logs are exposed in the walls of gullies and cliffs. ==History==

While the petrified forest had been known to local settlers since the mid-19th century, Later, the state geologist of Mississippi, Ephraim Noble Lowe, assigned the forest to the Jacksonian Formation. ==Activities and amenities==

After paying admission, the primary activity at the park is a long nature trail which features various points of interest, such as a cross-sectioned Sequoia trunk, and various exposed petrified logs, including the “Caveman’s Bench", a large piece of petrified wood which can be sat on. ==References==