This piece of petrified wood was found on the same beach at Kakanui as Stone #6 and was polished in the same batch:
It is 5 cms long, 2 cms at its widest and only between 2 mms and 5 mms thick. It has a great colour, with the wood grain showing clearly, and it has polished very smoothly:
The grain of petrified wood can vary significantly from piece to piece and from place to place, depending on the type of wood and the conditions of petrification. Mathew Vanner is a PhD candidate at the University of Otago who has conducted serious research into New Zealand’s petrified wood for a number of years. As a school boy, he had been introduced to fossil wood by Jack Geerlings of Winton. I met Jack on Gemstone Beach in 2019 and he invited me to visit him and see his extensive collection of stones and rocks, polished and rough. A few pieces of his petrified wood:
Some of Mathew’s microscopic slides of petrified wood have inspired weaver and artist Pam McKinlay to produce (during the Covid-19 national lockdown) a woven wall hanging that captures “forest timelines caught in stone”. Wood grain in stone is captured in the lines of the weaving. Pam McKinlay collaborates with other artists in community outreach and art+science education projects on the themes of climate change, sustainability and biodiversity. Her account of this project can be found on the Surface Design Association Blog here and a slightly more detailed report is here.
The beach on which I found Stone #17 is just a couple of kilometres north of Kakanui village and about 12 kilometres south of Oamaru.
The Index to the January 2022 Stone of the Day Series is here.
4 thoughts on “January 2022, Stone of the Day #17 – Another Kakanui Petrified Wood, and Woven Petrified Timelines”