Petrified wood reveals 300 million years of Europe's geological history
The study, led by scientists at the University of Münster and published in Scientific Reports, found that petrified wood acts as a natural geological archive, recording how a region was buried, heated, and later uplifted over hundreds of millions of years.
The researchers analyzed fossilized wood from the Kyffhäuser Mountains in northern Thuringia. Some of the trunks are up to 20 meters long and have been known since at least the 18th century. The trees grew around 300 million years ago in tropical dry forests on the ancient supercontinent Pangaea, when the region lay close to the equator. Floods buried the trees in river sediments, creating ideal conditions for their preservation.
Over time, silica-rich fluids seeped into the wood, gradually replacing the original material with quartz while preserving its internal structure. By examining the different layers of quartz inside the fossils, the team identified five distinct stages of mineral formation.
Each stage captured information about the temperature, pressure, and fluids present at the time. Together, they record around 200 million years of geological change, from the late Carboniferous period to the early Cretaceous. When the later uplift of the region is included, the archive spans about 300 million years, making it the longest sequence of wood mineralization ever documented.
The researchers used a combination of advanced imaging and dating techniques to reconstruct this history. Tiny pockets of fluid trapped inside the quartz proved especially valuable because they preserved the conditions under which the crystals formed. The analysis showed that parts of the fossil wood were once buried between about 3 and 5.5 kilometers underground at temperatures of roughly 170 to 240 degrees Celsius.
According to the researchers, the findings suggest that petrified wood could become a valuable tool for studying the geological evolution of continents. Because fossilized wood is found in many rock formations around the world, similar specimens may help scientists reconstruct the long-term history of other regions.
The study also found that the usefulness of fossil wood depends more on the climate and conditions in which it was buried than on the area's tectonic setting.
Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that the ancient Tethys Ocean may have played a major role in shaping Central Asia’s mountainous landscape during the age of dinosaurs.
