June 9, 2014
Monday Geology Picture(s): More Petrified Wood at Kirstenbosch Garden
Posted by Evelyn Mervine
My apologies again for the light blogging recently. My day job as an industry geologist has been keeping me extremely busy over the past couple of months. However, on Friday my husband and I are to the US for a much-needed three weeks of vacation, including spending time with friends and family whom we see far too rarely. Hopefully I’ll be able to squeeze in a little time for blogging during our vacation. Otherwise, I’ll do my best to pick up the blogging again in about a month. In the meantime, the “Monday Geology Picture” posts will have to tide you over until I can settle down for some real blogging.
Today, I thought I would share some more pictures of the petrified wood that my husband and I recently saw at Kirstenbosch Garden here in our home city of Cape Town, South Africa. Enjoy! True geologists, my husband and I spent far more time looking at the “trees of stone” than at the real trees of the botanical garden.
Scooped up some petrified wood from the bottom of a bayou, and I know your surprise, from the one picture. It is very heavy! Once wood is replaced molecule by molecule with silica, which becomes quartz,,,you have a pretty heavy petrified wood specimen, formerly known as a branch or twig.