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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

Journal of Sedimentary Research (SEPM)

Abstract


Journal of Sedimentary Petrology
Vol. 52 (1982)No. 4. (December), Pages 1277-1282

Silica Recrystallization in Petrified Wood

C. L. Stein (2)

ABSTRACT

The mineralogy of thirty-three samples of silicified wood was examined by X-ray diffraction, and each sample was found to consist of one of the following: opal-A ^rarr opal-CT ^rarr or quartz. The correlation between ordering of the silica phases and sample age suggests that the opal-A ^rarr opal-CT ^rarr quartz conversion sequence occurs in much the same manner and at approximately the same rates as in biogenic siliceous marine sediments. In addition, a poorly crystalline clay phase (illite?) was identified in most of these samples. Groundwater leaching of volcanogenic sediments, commonly thought to be the silica source, may also provide aluminum and other cations that are deposited simultaneously in wood tissue; consequently, silica recrystallization may be accompanied by authigenic clay formation.


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