Are The Strange Mesas In Southwest Giant Tree Stumps?
By James Donahue
Among the great mysteries found on the American landscape are the peculiar rock mesas standing on the high desert territories of Arizona and the adjoining states. The native tribes of the area have various legends explaining how these massive formations magically pushed up out of the earth. Geologists admit they can only theorize about their origins.
The general theory among the geologists is that large igneous rock formations were pushed to the surface by molten pressure, possibly from volcanic action deep under the surface of the earth. Whatever caused the mesas to appear happened long before anyone was around to record it.
Coupled with the mysterious mesas is Arizona’s Petrified Forest; a large area filled with what appear to be toppled petrified trees lying all over the ground. What is found there are numerous trees, all composed of solid rock, and most of them cut in perfect parts. The cuts are so clean they appear to have been made by a power saw. The trees in the Petrified Forest are mostly large but they are found in various sizes. There are so many petrified trees in the area that not all are protected within a national park. Pieces of petrified wood can be bought at souvenir shops throughout the area.
While the writers for the website Casper Planet are known for their spoofs in the stories they post, the guy that suggested that the Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming was found to be a giant petrified tree trunk with an ancient root system thrusting four miles deep and seven miles wide might have generated a theory worth considering.
While the Casper Planet story was a obvious satire, the thought raised by the story has been seriously shared by others over the years. A rebuttal story in Snopes noted that the story was obviously mocking a conspiracy theory raised by the flat-earth society. Society members argue that the mesas are the remains of ancient gargantuan trees that once stood when all living creatures on the planet were giants.
The Devils Tower is a giant butte in Crook County Wyoming composed of igneous rock rising 1,267 feet high. It has the distinction of having been declared the first National Monument of the nation by President Theodore Roosevelt.
While Devils Tower appears unique to that portion of Wyoming, buttes or mesas that look very much like it literally pepper the landscape of the high desert area of northeast Arizona in the heart of the Navajo Nation. My wife and I traveled among them when we spent a winter living with a Navajo medicine man and his wife in 1996. We listened to the many native stories about the origins of these interesting formations, knowing they were all “winter stories” passed down among families for generations.
I also studied the reports by geologists concerning the possible origins of the mesas, listened to stories told by members of the nearby Hopi tribe, and found it hard to believe any of their theories to be true. It was difficult to believe that some kind of unexplained pressure from deep under the earth would push such massive rock formations up into the desert landscape like that without upsetting the entire territory. Yet there they were, looking for all the world like that is exactly what happened.
An unidentified writer for Secret Energy, an interesting website, has developed an argument for looking at the mesas as petrified silicone tree stumps from a prehistoric time when the forests stood like giants and limbs that fell are the “petrified trees” lying around in Arizona’s Petrified Forest. He argues that the tree trunks and some of the limbs were preserved because they consisted of silicone rather than wood.
To be fossilized the trees and the trunks needed to be buried underground under sediments that prevented them from deteriorating in the oxygen of the planet’s air. That they are found so preserved on the surface is quite remarkable in itself. If the buttes are, indeed ancient tree stumps, the fact that most of them are flat at the top also suggests that they were cut with a power tool.
The article in Secret Energy is lengthy and goes into great detail which may be worth the read. Go to the site here.
By James Donahue
Among the great mysteries found on the American landscape are the peculiar rock mesas standing on the high desert territories of Arizona and the adjoining states. The native tribes of the area have various legends explaining how these massive formations magically pushed up out of the earth. Geologists admit they can only theorize about their origins.
The general theory among the geologists is that large igneous rock formations were pushed to the surface by molten pressure, possibly from volcanic action deep under the surface of the earth. Whatever caused the mesas to appear happened long before anyone was around to record it.
Coupled with the mysterious mesas is Arizona’s Petrified Forest; a large area filled with what appear to be toppled petrified trees lying all over the ground. What is found there are numerous trees, all composed of solid rock, and most of them cut in perfect parts. The cuts are so clean they appear to have been made by a power saw. The trees in the Petrified Forest are mostly large but they are found in various sizes. There are so many petrified trees in the area that not all are protected within a national park. Pieces of petrified wood can be bought at souvenir shops throughout the area.
While the writers for the website Casper Planet are known for their spoofs in the stories they post, the guy that suggested that the Devils Tower National Monument in Wyoming was found to be a giant petrified tree trunk with an ancient root system thrusting four miles deep and seven miles wide might have generated a theory worth considering.
While the Casper Planet story was a obvious satire, the thought raised by the story has been seriously shared by others over the years. A rebuttal story in Snopes noted that the story was obviously mocking a conspiracy theory raised by the flat-earth society. Society members argue that the mesas are the remains of ancient gargantuan trees that once stood when all living creatures on the planet were giants.
The Devils Tower is a giant butte in Crook County Wyoming composed of igneous rock rising 1,267 feet high. It has the distinction of having been declared the first National Monument of the nation by President Theodore Roosevelt.
While Devils Tower appears unique to that portion of Wyoming, buttes or mesas that look very much like it literally pepper the landscape of the high desert area of northeast Arizona in the heart of the Navajo Nation. My wife and I traveled among them when we spent a winter living with a Navajo medicine man and his wife in 1996. We listened to the many native stories about the origins of these interesting formations, knowing they were all “winter stories” passed down among families for generations.
I also studied the reports by geologists concerning the possible origins of the mesas, listened to stories told by members of the nearby Hopi tribe, and found it hard to believe any of their theories to be true. It was difficult to believe that some kind of unexplained pressure from deep under the earth would push such massive rock formations up into the desert landscape like that without upsetting the entire territory. Yet there they were, looking for all the world like that is exactly what happened.
An unidentified writer for Secret Energy, an interesting website, has developed an argument for looking at the mesas as petrified silicone tree stumps from a prehistoric time when the forests stood like giants and limbs that fell are the “petrified trees” lying around in Arizona’s Petrified Forest. He argues that the tree trunks and some of the limbs were preserved because they consisted of silicone rather than wood.
To be fossilized the trees and the trunks needed to be buried underground under sediments that prevented them from deteriorating in the oxygen of the planet’s air. That they are found so preserved on the surface is quite remarkable in itself. If the buttes are, indeed ancient tree stumps, the fact that most of them are flat at the top also suggests that they were cut with a power tool.
The article in Secret Energy is lengthy and goes into great detail which may be worth the read. Go to the site here.