Petrified Wood and Quartz Essay

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Introduction

Petrified wood is a type of fossil fuel that has a composition of fossil wood. In petrified wood all its organic components have been replaced by silicate minerals. However, its original wood structure remains unchanged. Natural quartz is a type of mineral composed of silicon-oxygen tetrahedral with Mohs scale hardness of 7 and 2.65 g/cm3 density. Being an essential constituent of felsic igneous rocks like granite, it is commonly found in sedimentary rocks like shale and sandstone. Other than that, it also exists in many metamorphic rocks such as gneiss, schist and quartzite in different forms. A visibly resistant to weathering, it can also be found in residual soils and sediments of the water body (Hurlbut & Klein 11-31)

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Formation process

Petrified wood is formed in a process known as petrifaction; a process that occurs when wood is buried underground in sediment. Water rich in minerals flow underground and consequently deposits its mineral components in the cell of these plants. The subsequent decay of the plant’s lignin and cellulose leads to a formation of a petrified wood, a stone- mould like substance. This process occurs in the absence of oxygen and the petrifaction process takes less than a hundred years. Unlike petrified wood, quartz takes millions of years to develop and forms into a concrete mineral that is seen and admired.

The formation process is a complex series of chemicals and mineral reactions and interactions. While the formation of petrified wood occurs in the absence of oxygen, quartz formation must involve the reaction with oxygen that make the decay process difficult. This is why its chemical formula is SiO2, the second most common mineral with a twinned and distorted shape. Petrified wood is represented by several colors because of the presence of several impurities during the formation process. However, pure quartz is colorless due to the fact that its formation involves a single element of silicon and oxygen that takes a long and treacherous period to combine both physically and chemically

Making of artificial petrified wood

In an effort to manufacture artificial petrified wood, a laboratory was set up in Washington that eventually was used to produce artificial petrified wood, a more refined and valuable mineral substance. The process involve the soaking of cut small cubes of pine that ere then soaked in acid and then retrieved after four days, then taken and soaked again in a solution of silica for two days. Then it was heated at temperature of 1400 degrees Celsius in a concealed atmosphere of argon fro two hours. This produced a resultant silicon carbide infused in the wood’s cell structure. Its subsequent soaking in a solution of tungsten gave out a tungsten carbide petrified wood, a good source of electricity generation. Lemelson (Presto 89-91).

Conclusion

The ability or potential of artificially manufactured petrified wood to develop a mechanical stress is useful in electrical application and has a potential to revolutionize the technology industry (Center 109).

Works cited

Hurlbut, C., & Klein, C., 1985. Manual of Mineralogy, (20th Ed), ISBN 0-471-80580-7.

Presto, P. 2005. , Live Science. Web.

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The Lemelson Center. 1995. National Museum of American History, The Quartz Watch – Inventors. Smithsonian Institution.

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IvyPanda. (2021) 'Petrified Wood and Quartz'. 14 November.

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IvyPanda. 2021. "Petrified Wood and Quartz." November 14, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/petrified-wood-and-quartz/.

1. IvyPanda. "Petrified Wood and Quartz." November 14, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/petrified-wood-and-quartz/.


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IvyPanda. "Petrified Wood and Quartz." November 14, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/petrified-wood-and-quartz/.

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