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Between the American cities of Holbrook and Navajo in Arizona an amazing national park called Petrifide Forest, which in Russian translates as “petrified forest. “And this is by no means an artistic exaggeration. At this the territory is a large volume of petrified wood, age which exceeds 225 million years. Unique Park Area It is 37851 hectares.
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Prehistoric trees, most of which are coniferous species Araucarioxylon arizonicum, turned into weighty stones of amazing shapes and colors. However, Petrifide Forest interesting not only for its fossils. You can also find here incredibly beautiful badlands, the so-called “colored” desert, ancient petroglyphs and much more.
Amazing fossils
In the center of the park for visitors, the famous petrified tree weighing 360 kilograms. In order to saw it off, It took 10 hours of continuous operation. For comparison, a marble column of the same diameter is sawn “only” for 2.5 hours.
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Petrified trunks are everywhere in the desert, starting at the entrance to a park. In total, scientists counted 9 species of trees. At the end of the triassic period, local plants fell and from time to time covered layer of sedimentary rocks containing ash discharged by nearby a volcano. Petrified, organics gradually replaced silicon dioxide, and an admixture of iron oxides gave fossils nice looking orange and red color.
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Thus, many trees in the desert have retained their shape, however, they lost their cell structure. However, some trunks preserved fragments of plants, animals, insects and fish that allows people of science to study extinct species once upon a time found and growing here. In the park many vertebrate fossils (e.g. descendants of modern crocodiles phytosaurs), large amphibians and early dinosaurs. IN at that time, this part of the land was located near the equator, therefore the local climate was subtropical.
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The hemp scattered around the national park differs externally from ordinary, wooden, except perhaps a reddish tint, however on touch they are an absolute stone that is invariably impresses tourists. The trunks are monstrously heavy, and therefore their the location never changes. Even in photos hundred years ago petrified trees whose height was once at 60 meters, lie in all the same places as now.
Entrepreneurship in a Petrified Forest
However, the stumps gradually crumble, stones break away from them. various sizes. At the beginning of the last century railway, and passengers loaded such souvenirs straight into wagons. Today export any parts of trees from Petrifide Forest it’s forbidden, the rangers can watch your car and even ask you to turn your pockets out. But, despite this, cunning tourists annually they take about 12 tons of fossils from the park with them.
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Petrifide Forest is open to visitors all year round. Entry to the park is free, but parking and excursions are necessary to pay.
Here you can officially buy as a souvenir a small piece of an ancient tree. They are completely legally mined on nearby private lands, where similar fossils. The owners of such estates have a decent income on the sale of stone stones, especially given that Arizona has a huge amount of fossils. At if desired, you can explore the no man’s land and mine the ancient stones there and then get permission to sell and not bad earn.
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Who used to live in a petrified forest?
Already 8,000 years ago in the territory of modern national Park lived by ancient people. Paleo Indians first smashed here temporary seasonal camps. They hunted rabbits, deer and antelopes, wild rice was grown. Subsequently appeared on this earth Permanent settlements with better homes.
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When the agricultural methods of the Paleo Indians were improved, the natives began to grow maize. In their large 200 people lived in huts, but over time, people began move families into small houses. Around 1380 BC the hot and dry climate forced the natives to migrate north, and the land is empty. Petrifide Forest still finds stone axes, knives, dishes and other primitive products of savages.
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Former residents left a lot of petrified trunks petroglyphs – embossed drawings depicting activities Paleo Indians, their deities, forces of nature, as well as various abstract symbols not understood by modern man.
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Time Stones Climate Petroglyphs Plants USA
