Monday, November 18, 2019, Mississippi Petrified Forest, Flora, MS

We had no idea there was petrified wood in Mississippi but we found a museum where we learned something new. Petrified wood can be found in many States and in many countries worldwide. All that was necessary was the right conditions to preserve the wood allowing the fibers to be slowly replaced by minerals. The petrified wood in Mississippi was certainly not as colorful as that found in Arizona's National Park but it was still impressive.

During the Cretaceous Period, 145 to 66 million years ago, the global climate was much warmer in North America than it is today. The sea level was quite high and divided the continent in half.

During the Oligocene Epoch, 34 to 23 million years ago, global temperatures began to gradually cool and sea level again dropped. Almost half of the state was dry land or swamp. Rivers cut new paths and formed floodplains. Logs were entombed and petrified in the sediments of these ancient rivers.

During the Great Ice Age, 11,700 years to 2.6 million years ago, nearly all of Canada and the northernmost US was repeatedly covered by glaciers as a series of temperature swings resulted in more than a dozen major glaciations. Rapid warming at the close of the Ice Age probably contributed to the mass extinction of many large terrestrial animals.

The petrified wood found in this area did not grow here, they are from the north. Mississippi was once covered by a shallow sea. These trees were probably brought here as driftwood 36 to 38 million years ago, stranded in a log jam of the area's lowlands and quickly buried in over 70 feet of soil from the murky waters.

140 years ago this land was 60 feet higher than today. How many more logs might be exposed in another 140 years?

This area was once "badlands" but has since eroded and been reclaimed by flora, leaving the petrified logs exposed.

"Caveman's Bench" lies right on the Forest Trail and signs encourage you to have a seat. In the old piece of canyon wall beside the Bench are a number of log sections still embedded, which were once all part of the same huge tree.

A small museum at the end of the trail showcased petrified wood from sites all around the world as well as many interesting mineral specimens.

The Mississippi Petrified Forest history page has an excellent explanation of how this came to be.