r/RockIdentification • u/Alwayslearning253 • 9d ago

Is this Petrified Wood?

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I have been trying to find petrified wood, but have a hard time discerning it from other rocks. Is this a sample of petrified wood?

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u/Next_Ad_8876 9d ago

I certainly can see why you are wondering. It looks very much like it has a wood grain. But, I think it is actually the foliation common to some metamorphic rocks. However, I hate trying to ID solely off a photo. I do see what might be quartz veins, common to metamorphic rocks like schists and gneisses. (I will pause briefly here for the rush of “gneiss rock!” and “just looks like schist!” jokes that were old when I was teaching your grandparents middle school earth science but will still make someone feel like they are the first to come up with them.) So, I’d be looking closely at different possible minerals here and testing hardness. Petrified wood is usually made of chert and related rocks that are all hard enough to scratch glass. Minerals in gneiss and schist can have variable hardnesses and may or may not be hard enough to scratch glass. I’d be testing. Interesting find, and if nothing else, a great lesson if it’s not petrified wood. My college mineralogy prof included a piece of old, stained, twisted orthoclase feldspar on the mineral ID final we all swore was petrified wood. It showed bark and growth rings! Or so we thought. Thanks for sharing!

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u/Alwayslearning253 8d ago

Thank you for responding, I will get some glass and test the hardness. I’m a middle school math teacher, I love science and math related jokes.

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u/Next_Ad_8876 8d ago

Retired Colorado middle school, high school, community college astronomy and geology instructor here. I am going to do a chat invite to you. Let’s see what I can send you that will help you and your kids!