Petrified wood- Blue Forest

The Blue Forest is in the Eden Valley region of Wyoming here in the USA. This is a particularly exceptional piece that is left rough on two sides, while all of the other surfaces were polished by me.

This location is special because it shows three stages of petrification, all while the trees were still standing. This forest was actually flooded with standing water first that formed thick layers of moss around the tree trunks. The area was then flooded with so much sediment and debris completely sealing the trees off from any sort of oxygen, kicking off the petrification process. The first phase of petrifying this valley seen cracks in the wood, that had rotten away and shrank apart, all got filled in with Blue Chalcedony. Hence its name, the Blue Forest. Also, any living organisms inside throughout the moss were petrified into this Blue Chalcedony. This mineral content eventually subsided or changed consistency leaving behind a beautiful array of calcites, then quarts points off them.