Petrified wood is found worldwide in sedimentary beds ranging in age from the
Devonian (about 390 million years ago), when woody plants first appeared on dry land, to nearly the present. Petrified "forests" tend to be either entire ecosystems buried by volcanic eruptions, in which trunks often remain in their growth positions, or accumulations of drift wood in fluvial environments. Amethyst Ridge at
Yellowstone National Park shows 27 successive forest ecosystems buried by eruptions, while Petrified Forest National Park is a particularly fine example of fluvial accumulations of driftwood. Areas with a large number of petrified trees include:
Africa at
Namibia Petrified forest • Egypt – petrified forest in Cairo-Suez road, declared a national protectorate by the ministry of environment, also in the area of
New Cairo at the Extension of
Nasr City, El Qattamiyya, near El
Maadi district, and
Al Farafra oasis. • Madagascar – Northwest Coast • Namibia –
petrified forest of Damaraland • Sudan – petrified forest north of
El-Kurru Asia • China – in the
Junggar Basin of
Xinjiang, northwest
China, the government has issued a crackdown on collecting of this material. • India – protected geological sites known for petrified wood are the
National Fossil Wood Park, Tiruvakkarai (20-million-year-old fossils), and the
Akal Wood Fossil Park (180-million-year-old fossils). Petrified wood has also been discovered in
Dholavira in
Kutch,
Gujarat, dating back to 187–176 million years. • Japan – there is a fossilized forest preserved at
Sendai City Tomizawa Site Museum • Indonesia – petrified wood covers several areas in
Banten and also in some part of
Mount Halimun Salak National Park. • Israel – several examples of petrified wood occur in the
HaMakhtesh HaGadol in the
Negev desert. • Pakistan – Sindh – Dadu – Petrified Forest at Khirthar National Park • Saudi Arabia – petrified forest north of Riyadh • Thailand –
Bantak Petrified Forest Park in
Ban Tak District has the longest petrified log in the world, officially measuring 69.7 metres.
Oceania • Australia – has deposits of petrified and
opalized wood.
Chinchilla, Queensland is famous for its 'Chinchilla Red'. • New Zealand: •
Curio Bay on
The Catlins coast contains many petrified wood examples. •
Fossil Forest, Takapuna, Auckland, New Zealand • Titahi Bay Beach, Porirua, New Zealand
Europe • Belgium – Geosite Goudberg near
Hoegaarden. • Czech Republic,
Nová Paka – The most famous locality on
Permian–
Carboniferous rocks in the Czech Republic. • France – petrified forest in the village of
Champclauson • Georgia –
Goderdzi Petrified Forest Natural Monument. • Germany – the museum of natural history in
Chemnitz has a collection of petrified trees, from the in situ
Chemnitz petrified forest, found in the town in 1737. • Greece –
Petrified forest of Lesvos, at the western tip of the island of
Lesbos, is possibly the largest of the petrified forests, covering an area of over and declared a National Monument in 1985. Large, upright trunks complete with root systems can be found, as well as trunks up to 22 m in length. • Italy: • , petrified forest near
Avigliano Umbro,
Umbria (Central Italy), age
Piacenzian. • , petrified forest near
Soddì (
Province of Oristano,
Sardinia), age
Chattian–
Aquitanian. • Norway – Fossilized tropical forest in
Svalbard • Ukraine – petrified
araucaria trunks near
Druzhkivka • United Kingdom •
Fossil Grove, Glasgow, Scotland •
Fossil Forest, Dorset, England
North America • Canada – in the
badlands of southern
Alberta; petrified wood is the provincial stone of Alberta.
Axel Heiberg Island in
Nunavut has a large petrified forest. In and around the North Saskatchewan river, around the
Edmonton area. Blanche Brook, in Stephenville, Newfoundland, has 305-million-year-old examples. • United States •
Petrified Wood Park in
Lemmon, South Dakota •
Ginkgo/Wanapum State Park in
Washington state •
Petrified Forest National Park in
Arizona •
Petrified Forest in
California •
Mississippi Petrified Forest in
Flora, Mississippi •
Cherokee Ranch petrified forest •
Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument near
Florissant, Colorado •
Yellowstone Petrified Forest and Gallatin Petrified Forest,
Yellowstone National Park,
Wyoming • The south unit of
Theodore Roosevelt National Park outside
Medora, North Dakota •
Gilboa Fossil Forest in
New York •
Athens County,
Caesar Creek,
Hueston Woods,
Ohio •
Black Hills Petrified Forest in
South Dakota •
Escalante Petrified Forest State Park in
Utah •
Agate Desert in the Upper Rogue River Valley near
Medford, Oregon • Fossil Forest in the
Catskill region near
Cairo, New York •
Valley of Fire State Park in
Nevada •
Bisti Badlands in
New Mexico •
Prince William Forest Park in
Virginia South America • Argentina – the
Sarmiento Petrified Forest and
Jaramillo Petrified Forest in
Santa Cruz Province in the Argentine
Patagonia have many trees that measure more than in diameter and long. • Brazil: • in the
geopark of Paleorrota, there is a vast area with petrified trees. • In the Heritage forest • ('Fossil Trees Natural Monument') in
Tocantins: petrified forests of
dicksoniaceae (specifically
Psaronius and
Tietea) and arthropitys • Petrified forests of dicksoniaceae (specifically
Psaronius and
Tietea singularis) and arthropitys can also be found in the state of
São Paulo • near
Rio Poti,
Piauí,
Permian (around 280–270 million years ago). • Ecuador –
Puyango Petrified Forest – One of the largest collections of petrified wood in the world. ==See also==