This rock is naturally formed, creating designs. Often, those white bands or stripes, called veins, are quartz or calcite. Quartz filled the fissures and cracks in rocks. The calcite was formed from the precipitation of calcium carbonate from water running over and through the rocks.
Designs in a Rock
The Crystal Forest is so named because many of the logs found here contained clear quartz and purple amethyst crystals making for beautiful logs. Unfortunately, souvenir hunters helped themselves long ago, taking the best samples away. A few crystallized logs remain but the more typical petrified logs are more abundant. The disappearance of the crystal logs led to the area’s ultimate protection as a National Monument in 1906 and finally a National Park in 1962.
Arizona – The Crystal Forest
Arizona – The Crystal Forest – From Petrified Wood to Crystal
It took a while, but we now move on to another state …..