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Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Painted Desert to Petrified Forest

The Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Parks are part of a common geological setting. One can see petrified wood from the viewpoints along the loop road that curves north of Interstate 40 through the Painted Desert before turning west and then south across the interstate and to the main section where the Petrified Forest takes over. And where the petrified wood is very visible, it is against the backdrop of the Painted Desert landscape. Here is a view of some fantastic layered geology just before getting to the most prolific displays of petrified wood along the loop road south of I-40. This image was taken with my 24mm lens with an exposure of 1/1250 seconds at f/8, ISO 400.
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4 comments:

Tuguldur said...

wow, Jim, that is one crazy image! The sight is soooo much like to what you see in Gobi desert, might be a little yellowish there, but the textures are so similar! very nice photo, colors are great!

Jim said...

Gotta love geology - you can find things in common all over the place and from that, put together the big picture. Have a safe trip home tomorrow! See you in a few weeks.

Tuguldur said...

thanks Jim! :) Gonna fly in 8h.

I know that Gobi was an ocean floor xxx years ago, does the Sonora share the same fate?

Jim said...

Yes, at one time this whole area was a shallow sea. I believe the the Petrified Forest was formed around 225 million years ago when it was something of a swampland. Some cataclysmic event caused the ancient trees to be buried in a watery environment that caused the fallen trees to be preserved by being buried in bud and eventually the minerals replaced the biomatter..... I think that was after the sediments that formed the layers of the Painted Desert were laid down.