Fossil wood

ETYMOLOGY: It comes from the greek meaning wood.

CRYSTAL SYSTEM: Trigonal or amorphic.

PRINCIPLE OF FORMATION: Secondary.

CLASS MINERAL: Oxides.

FIELDS: Brazil, Argentina, Madagascar, Egypt, Morocco, USA.

MINERALOGY: The wood is impregnated in the absence of oxygen (anaerobic) with agents such as the volcanic ash, volcanic mud flows, sediments of lakes and swamps or material covered by violent floods Several minerals (calcite, pyrite, marcasite) can cause petrification. By far the most common is silicic acid. The solutions of dissolved silica in ground water infiltrating the buried timber and with a complex chemical process is precipitated and housed in individual cells of the plant. Here silicic acid may take a variety of forms: it can be agate, jasper, chalcedony or opal. The varied colors of petrified wood are caused by the presence of other minerals that are introduced into the timber in the acid solution. Iron oxides wood stain orange, rust, red or yellow. Manganese oxides produce blue, black or purple.

It is a fossil, petrified wood as they say While this statement is not entirely accurate, because the organic parts of the timber is never directly converted into stone, but only the form and the structural elements of wood are transmitted. Technical define this process as a pseudomorphosis chalcedony (jasper or opal) wood.

MYTHOLOGY: Four thousand three hundred years ago Xilópalo was found as an object of worship in an Etruscan temple, considered this mineral or as giant bone or instrument of the gods and therefore was used for magical purposes as the object of force, the trees of which comes, at his death were covered with quartz-rich sands, which 130 million years have replaced the molecules and have retained the original plant form. The petrified forests are best preserved in Arizona, there petrified tree trunks up to 65m in length and 3 m in thickness belonging to the genus of the pine are these logs floated about 200 million years ago from different regions and then were covered by sediments hundreds of meters thick.

PROPERTIES: It is said that Xilópalo is a stone of transformation, helping to go ahead and helps you see all of our actions as part of us, Xilópalo gives us rest, relaxes, brings us together and helps to have our feet on the ground and we face reality, Xilópalo helps create a pleasant atmosphere to live a simple life and taking time for leisure and to think.

CHAKRAS: Sacral.

ZODIAC SIGN: Gemini.

USES: For industrial art objects and decorative pieces (trays, ashtrays, Bookends, paperweights, poses-candles) meditation, collection, jewelery.