'Chinese Pompeii' 300m-year-old forest preserved in ash

[Lars77]

Researchers have unearthed a forest in northern China preserved under a layer of ash deposited 300 million years ago.

Preservation of the forest, just west of the Inner Mongolian district of Wuda, has been likened to that of the Italian city of Pompeii.

The researchers were able to "reconstruct" nearly 1,000 sq m of the forest's trees and plant distributions.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17117223

[Brother Buzz]

1. Cool. The petrified redwood forest in my area is a mere 3 million years old

Redwood trees of up to eight feet in diameter and hundreds of feet high were blown down like toothpicks in the flow of ash from a major volcano to the north and east. Then they were deeply buried by ash and preserved by replacement of organic material by fine-grained silicon and oxygen. Modern uplift and erosion has exposed the tips of the trees, and the final excavation was done. I have a nice specimen my grandfather collected as a kid from one of the outcroppings; he grew up just down the lane from it.