The Sarnia Rock & Fossil Club (SRFC) Jan/Feb 2018 T h e N a r r o w s N e w s Sarnia, Ontario, Canada Meetings are held on the 2nd Friday of each Month Sept - May 7:30 PM TWIN LAKES TERRACE 1310 Murphy Rd, Sarnia ON The Narrows News is published five times/year – Jan, March, May, Sept, Nov. 1 SRFC Meeting Information 6-7 Locations Of Petrified Wood 2 SRFC Executive, Presidents Message 8 Chinese Tourist Destroys 3 Groups, Club News 9 Brad’s Bench Tips 4 What Is Petrified Wood 10 Puzzle 5 How To Identify Types of Petrified Wood Page 1 The Sarnia Rock & Fossil Club (SRFC) Jan/Feb 2018 President’s Message SRFC Executive Hi Burrrr its cold outside, I guess the government forgot to tell Mother President: Nature about global warming. I guess we shouldn’t complain, we do live in Ivan McKay the North and I have seen it worst then this. Welcome everybody to 2018, hope everyone had a good Christmas Vice President: holiday. Now is the time to get back into the swing of things and start Mark Nilsson planning for the future. If anybody has any ideas for field trips please bring it up at our meeting. We also need a program presentation for our meetings. If you have an interesting story or know of someone that can do a Past President presentation please bring it up at a meeting so we can make arrangements Wayne Wilcocks for it to be presented. Chris Risk is having a closing out sale at his store in Glencoe. He has Secretary: a good selection of rocks, he also sells musical instruments. If anyone is Cathy Bathurst interested you can talk to him at the meeting or you can contact him by phone at 226-427-2033. Treasurer: Hope to see everyone at our meetings. Stay warm and enjoy life. Ian Clarke Ivan G McKay, President (519) 287-2506 Card Secretary: [email protected] Sandi English Publicity: Mary Rastall Bulletin Editor: Ivan McKay Clu b Representative: Ivan McKay/Mary Rastall CCFMS Liason: Ivan McKay Group Leaders: Gp1: Mark Nilsson Gp2: Children’s Program: Adam Wisniewski Web Site Page 2 The Sarnia Rock & Fossil Club (SRFC) Jan/Feb 2018 MEETING GROUPS At each meeting the people in each group are responsible to get a speaker or entertainment for after the meeting and before the social time. They are also responsible for any clean up that is needed. Group leaders are in BOLD. Group 1, Feb, Apr, Sept, Nov Group 2, Jan, Mar, ,May, Oct Dec Bjelis, Vlado & Family Ali, Bibi Pot Luck Christmas Dinner Bly, Kevin Bathurst, Cathy, Charles Everybody bring something Brzezynski, Betty Clarke, Ian, Shirley Jagt, Hank, Mary Halbauer, Kelvin Leduc, Cheryl Jackson, Melanie Leistra, Sydney McKay, Ivan, Eleanore Levesque, Jacques Nixon, Gary, Tim Nilsson Mark, English Sandra Rastall, Mary, Steve Risk, Chris Robinson, Dave Robinson, Jassie Smith, Barb, Dave Wisniewski, Adam, Ethan Wilcocks, Wayne, Dorothy Williams, Peter Club News Our Jan Meeting will be held on the 12th at 7:30 PM at Twin Lakes Terrace, 1310 Murphy Rd, Sarnia. Enter through the front door and turn right. The meeting will be held in the area off of the TV lounge. A tutorial on rock cutting will be shown. Our Feb Meeting will be held on the 9th at 7:30 PM at Twin Lakes Terrace. No presentation at this time. Will bring it up at Jan Meeting. Membership dues for 2018 are due now, if you have not paid yet please pay for it at the Jan Meeting or contact Ian Clarke at 519-542-2038 to make arrangement to pay your dues. If dues are not paid this will be your last newsletter. Thank You. Chris Risk is having a closing out sale at him rock shop in Glencoe. Anyone interested as to what he has you can talk to him at the meeting or by phone at 226- 427-2033 Remember, if the weather is bad outside; please bring some dry footwear to wear inside at the meeting Page 3 The Sarnia Rock & Fossil Club (SRFC) Jan/Feb 2018 What is Petrified Wood? How Does it Form? Where are their Locations? From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia What is Petrified Wood? Petrified wood is the name given to a special type of fossilized remains of terrestrial vegetation. It is the result of a tree or tree-like plants having completely transitioned to stone by the process of permineralization. All the organic materials have been replaced with minerals (mostly a silicate, such as quartz), while retaining the original structure of the stem tissue. Unlike other types of fossils which are typically impressions or compressions, petrified wood is a three- dimensional representation of the original organic material The petrifaction process occurs underground, when wood becomes buried under sediment or volcanic ash and is initially preserved due to a lack of oxygen which inhibits aerobic decomposition. Mineral-laden water flowing through the covering material deposits minerals in the plant’s cells; as the plant’s lignin and cellulose decay, a stone mold forms in its place. The organic matter needs to become petrified before it decomposes completely. A forest where such material has petrified becomes known as a petrified forest. How Does It Form? Elements such as manganese, iron, and copper in the water/mud during the petrification process give petrified wood a variety of color ranges. Pure quartz crystals are colorless, but when contaminants are added to the process the crystals take on a yellow, red, or another tint. Following is a list of contaminating elements and related color hues: carbon – black chromium – green/blue cobalt – green/blue copper – green/blue iron oxides – red, brown, and yellow manganese – pink/orange manganese oxides – blackish/yellow Petrified wood is a fossil in which the organic remains have been replaced by minerals in the slow process of being replaced with stone. This petrification process generally results in a quartz chalcedony mineralization. Special rare conditions must be met in order for the fallen stem to be transformed into fossil wood or petrified wood. In general, the fallen plants get buried in an environment free of oxygen (anaerobic environment), which preserves the original plant structure and general appearance. The other conditions include a regular access to mineral rich water in contact with the tissues, replacing the organic plant structure with inorganic minerals. The end result is petrified wood, a plant, with its original basic structure in place, replaced by stone. Exotic minerals allow the red and green hues that can be seen in rarer specimens. Page 4 The Sarnia Rock & Fossil Club (SRFC) Jan/Feb 2018 How to Identify Types of Petrified Wood By Sally Taylor; Updated April 25, 2017 Identifying petrified wood types can be a difficult and sometimes impossible task. Some pieces of wood lose so much of their original cell structure during the petrifying process that it is impossible to recover enough information to identify them. Some types of wood are distinct enough that novices can recognize them with only a 10x magnifying glass. Even the best specimens of some wood species take training and high-magnification equipment to identify. First Clues The quality of the wood will determine whether the piece can be identified. Original cell structure is sometimes completely destroyed by the petrification process. If you can see patterns in the wood, there is a good chance the piece can be identified. Knowing what types of trees grow in the areas in which the wood was found can also help in identifying your piece. If a specimen can be narrowed down to a few possibilities, some types can be ruled out because they would most likely not be found with known species of that area. The rest of the identification process requires magnification. Cell Structures Some cell structures are evident with magnification of only 10x. Others may need up to 800x magnification. Cells (tracheids) of different classes of wood are arranged in different patterns. For instance, when looking across the wood as you would when viewing growth rings, a conifer tree has small round cells that form fairly straight lines. Angiosperm (oak, walnut, sycamore) have vessels rather than tracheids, which are similar, yet they don't form neat rows nor are they always round. Ginkgo has yet a different cell formation which is similar to corn. Knowing the cell structure of different forms of wood is necessary for proper identification. Rays And Other Distinctive Features Rays are important indicators of wood types. Rays are lines of small cells that run from the center of the round to the bark. In some types of wood, these rays are thin, sometimes only one or two cells wide, and in others they are wider or of different widths. Fruit-bearing trees have many widths of rays while pine has narrow and uniform rays. Some woods have other distinctive features. Pine, for example, has "resin ducts." These ducts look like cells but are much larger. If they are found in wood with small straight lines of cells and narrow rays, no further examination is necessary to know the wood is pine. Examination Methods Examination is often done by making a cube of the wood so it can be seen from different axis angles. The wood cubes are finely sanded to take out scratches that can hinder identification. If high levels of magnification are necessary, thin slices of wood only a few cells thick are used. The examiner must know the aspects of different woods, so some education is involved in the process, too.