Petrified Wood Doesn't Need Millions of Years to Form

​​Petrified wood is claimed to form over millions of years by evolutionists, however, recent laboratory work by creationists has shown that the process can occur over a much shorter period of time. Petrified wood forms when minerals precipitate inside the cavities and pore space inside wood, particularly in fallen tree trunks, and the wood material hardens into stone. The mineralization of petrified wood must occur before the decomposition process begins and therefore wood must be buried rapidly before the decomposition process begins. Wood from tree trunks can decompose within a few decades if not buried properly. After hardening into stone, the petrified wood can retain some of its biological texture inside the stone texture. This process occurs when fallen tree trunks are buried by silica-rich volcanic ash and groundwater flows through. Creationists believe that the global Genesis Flood produced the right conditions for the formation of petrified wood as the catastrophic floodwaters pulled trees from their roots and buried them in sediment and volcanic material. However, in addition to petrified wood being produced as a result of the Flood, reports of natural petrified wood formation have been reported in modern times. According to the reports, this petrified wood was extracted from underground and featured modern human tool marks before hardening into stone. During a field experiment, a sample of wood was placed into an alkaline spring containing hot, silica-rich waters in Yellowstone National Park. After one year had passed, a large portion of the sample had precipitated minerals and formed a hard rock texture. Many laboratory experiments have also shown that wood can petrify under certain conditions within a short period of time. In addition, petrified wood is currently being artificially produced for the construction industry to be used for flooring. Therefore, petrified wood does not require millions of years to form, as claimed by evolutionists at National Parks and other sites containing petrified wood. In addition, measurable radioactive carbon-14 material has been detected in fossilized wood, which should not exist after 50,000 years according to uniformitarian principles and the 5,730 year half-life. The formation of petrified wood complies with the creationist model for a 6,000 year-old Earth as described in the Biblical scriptures. Yellowstone National Park contains a large amount of petrified wood and creationists believe that this material was formed catastrophically by a large flooding event, as evident by the upright-standing fossilized tree trunks visible in the park. Park officials claim that its petrified trees were formed from 27 consecutive series of fossilized forests over 50 million years ago, according to standard evolutionist doctrine. Creationists, in contrast, believe that the fossilized material was formed in a large, catastrophic flood less than 5,000 years ago. Creation geologist Steve Austin has proposed that many tree trunks were deposited in nearby Spirit Lake during the catastrophic event, with some of them being buried upright at the bottom of the lake. Observations have confirmed Austin's prediction.