A volcanic eruption 39 million years ago buried a forest in Peru - now the petrified trees are

[TexasTowelie]

A volcanic eruption 39 million years ago buried a forest in Peru – now the petrified trees are revealing South America’s primeval history

by Deborah Woodcock, Research Scientist, Clark University
and Herb Meyer, Paleontologist, National Park Service


In the hills outside the small village of Sexi, Peru, a fossil forest holds secrets about South America’s past millions of years ago.

When we first visited these petrified trees more than 20 years ago, not much was known about their age or how they came to be preserved. We started by dating the rocks and studying the volcanic processes that preserved the fossils. From there, we began to piece together the story of the forest, starting from the day 39 million years ago when a volcano erupted in northern Peru.

Ash rained down on the forest that day, stripping leaves from the trees. Then flows of ashy material moved through, breaking off the trees and carrying them like logs in a river to the area where they were buried and preserved. Millions of years later, after the modern-day Andes rose and carried the fossils with them, the rocks were exposed to the forces of erosion, and the fossil woods and leaves again saw the light of day.

This petrified forest, El Bosque Perificado Piedra Chamana, is the first fossil forest from the South American tropics to be studied in detail. It is helping paleontologists like us to understand the history of the megadiverse forests of the New World tropics and the past climates and environments of South America.

Read more: https://theconversation.com/a-volcanic-eruption-39-million-years-ago-buried-a-forest-in-peru-now-the-petrified-trees-are-revealing-south-americas-primeval-history-160160

[Goonch]

1. Paleontologist Edwin Cadena poses next to giant, fossilized (permineralized) tree on Peruvian Platea