and they want us to believe that a log laid out in open air
I suspect you might "dig" a little deeper. Your knowledge is incomplete.
What is Petrified Wood? How Does it Form?
The most famous locality for observing petrified wood is Petrified Forest National Park near the community of Holbrook in northeastern
Arizona. About 225 million years ago, this area was a lowland with a tropical climate and covered by a dense forest. Rivers flooded by tropical rain storms washed mud and other sediments into the lowlands. Enormous coniferous trees up to 9 feet in diameter and 200 feet tall lived and died in these lowlands. Fallen trees and broken branches were often buried by the river sediments. Nearby
volcanoes erupted numerous times. These eruptions blanketed the area in
volcanic ash with a high silica content.
Rapid burial allowed the plant debris to escape destruction by oxygen and insects. The soluble ash was dissolved by groundwater flowing through the sediments. The dissolved ash served as a source of silica that replaced the plant debris, creating petrified wood. Trace amounts of iron, manganese and other minerals were included in the silica and gave the petrified wood a variety of colors. These sediments, plant debris, and volcanic ash became part of a rock unit known today as the Chinle Formation.
In the millions of years after the Chinle Formation was deposited, .
the area was uplifted and the
rocks deposited above the Chinle were eroded away.
