Cool and unusual find in the graveyard: crystal veins in a semi-petrified stump.
I didn’t know what to make of this when I saw if from a distance.
At first, I thought is was the remnant of a pile of snow, then a strangely located chunk of rough cement – maybe a horribly crumbled headstone?
On closer inspection, I decided it is actually a stump.That’s impressive in its own right, because this would have been a big tree, judging by the amount of weathering it shows. But that’s not why I have become fixated on the object.
THIS is the detail that I found most fascinating. In a couple of different sections of the stump, I found veins of mineral crystals. Now I need to understand how something like this happens. Did the crystals form inside the tree while it was alive? Is it possible that the stump – which still features sections that feel like wood – is old enough that the mineral deposit formed after the tree fell?
Are there any mineralogists out there?
Great pics, made all the more strange because they are in a cemetery. I imagine the crystal deposits are from the roots continuing to suck up moisture even though the tree had been struck down. The mineral rich liquid came up through the stump then ‘bled out’ – perhaps for quite some time. I’m no geologist or mineralogist but that’s my guess.
March 27, 2012 at 12:06 pm
Fascinating find– this would have intrigued me, too. I hope you’ll let us know if you figure it out!
March 31, 2012 at 9:24 am
Over on my Paranormalist Facebook page, one reader wrote: [I'm not quite the mineralist you were hoping for,] but that is petrified wood. With benefits! It happens when the cells of a dead tree get replaced by minerals. There must have been a hollow and the crystals grew there instead of in the rings.
April 11, 2012 at 12:28 am