Explore Numerous Layers of Petrified Trees: Yellowstone

[1dave]

[gemfeller]

As Mountain Man Jim Bridger (Old Gabe) put it, describing Yellowstone to Easterrners:

"There are peetrified birds sitting in peetrfied trees, singing peetrified songs."

Jim had a charming gift for embellishing facts.

[realrockhound]

I know of a petrified forest in central Oregon. Not telling anyone where it’s at. But I’m talking trees 40+ feet long.

[liveoak]

The slides of the pet tree slices were pretty amazing.

OH MY, what a doublet that would make

Thanks Dave,

Patty

[1dave]

Nov 17, 2024 19:03:23 GMT -5 gemfeller said:

As Mountain Man Jim Bridger (Old Gabe) put it, describing Yellowstone to Easterrners:

"There are peetrified birds sitting in peetrfied trees, singing peetrified songs."

Jim had a charming gift for embellishing facts.

[realrockhound]

Nov 18, 2024 10:21:00 GMT -5 1dave said:

Nov 17, 2024 19:03:23 GMT -5 gemfeller said:

As Mountain Man Jim Bridger (Old Gabe) put it, describing Yellowstone to Easterrners:

"There are peetrified birds sitting in peetrfied trees, singing peetrified songs."

Jim had a charming gift for embellishing facts.

Its the painted hills, Oregon

[1dave]

Nov 18, 2024 12:10:39 GMT -5 realrockhound said:

Nov 18, 2024 10:21:00 GMT -5 1dave said:

Its the painted hills, Oregon

The John Day Formation is also the layers Oregon's Famed Thunder egg's are found!

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
John Day Strata
Stratigraphic range: Eocene-Early Miocene
Exposures of the Turtle Cove Formation along a hiking trail in the Sheep Rock Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument
Type Sedimentary (mostly from clasts of igneous origin), igneous
Underlies Columbia River Basalt Group
Overlies Clarno Formation
Lithology
Primary Sandstone, tuff
Other Pyroclastic
Location
Region Central Oregon
Country United States
Type section
Named for John Day River
John Day Fossil Beds map

The John Day Formation is a series of rock strata exposed in the Picture Gorge district of the John Day River basin and elsewhere in north-central Oregon in the United States. The Picture Gorge exposure lies east of the Blue Mountain uplift, which cuts southwest–northeast through the Horse Heaven mining district northeast of Madras. Aside from the Picture Gorge district, which defines the type, the formation is visible on the surface in two other areas: another exposure is in the Warm Springs district west of the uplift, between it and the Cascade Range, and the third is along the south side of the Ochoco Mountains. All three exposures, consisting mainly of tuffaceous sediments and pyroclastic rock rich in silica, lie unconformably between the older rocks of the Clarno Formation below and Columbia River basalts above.[1]
Stratigraphy

The strata, which vary in age from 39 million years to 18 million years, were formed mainly from ashfalls from volcanoes due to a series of calderas now linked to the Yellowstone hotspot. Some of the major layers within the group exposed in the Picture Gorge district are the Big Basin Formation and Bridge Creek Beds (35 to 32 million years), the Turtle Cove Formation (30 to 28 million years), the Picture Gorge Ignimbrite (28.7 million years), the Kimberly Formation (28 to 25 million years), and the Haystack Formation (25 to 18 million years).[2]

Located in the general vicinity of what became the Cascade Range, the John Day volcanoes emitted large volumes of ash and dust, much of which settled in the John Day basin. The rapid deposition of the ash preserved the remains of plants and animals living in the region. Some of the solidified ash and the fossils they contain are found in the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. Because ash and other debris fell during varied climatic and volcanic conditions and accumulated from many eruptions extending into the early Miocene (about 20 million years ago), the sediment layers in the fossil beds vary in their substance, chemical composition and color.[3] The lowermost layer contains red ash, such as that exposed in the Painted Hills Unit of the national monument.[4] The layer above it is mainly pea-green clay. On top of the pea-green layer are buff-colored layers.[3]

[realrockhound]

Gotta go up a bit in elevation to find the thundereggs though. I do know a secret spot around that area when I located some killer lace/tube agate. But it’s away from the painted hills.

[ThomasT]

These layers over layers of petrified forests are a testament to how trees are so resilient and adaptable on Earth for a very long time.

The only petrified bird I've found was actually just a carbonized (burnt) Turkey from the oven...