Artist: Li Weier Long

The Amazing Colored Petrified Forest

A sun-swept corner of the Painted Desert in Arizona is home to the Petrified Forest National Park which draws more than 600,000 visitors each year. While most come to see one of the world’s largest concentrations of brilliantly colored petrified wood, many leave having glimpsed something more. The current 346 square miles of Petrified Forest open a window on an environment more than 200 million years old, one radically different from today’s grassland.

Over time, trees died or perhaps were knocked over by flood waters or wind. Rivers carried the trees into the lowlands, breaking off branches, bark, and small roots along the way. Some trees were deposited on the flood plain adjacent to the rivers and others were buried in the stream channels. Most of the trees decomposed and disappeared. But a few trees were petrified, becoming the beautiful fossilized logs we see today. 

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chemical reaction

No Regrets Part I

Best of 2013!

January

Physicists: Earth May be Breaking Through Dark Matter Walls

Black Holes May Turboboost Super-Civilizations

Giant, Magnetized Outflows From Our Galactic Center

February

Nearby Ancient Star is Almost as Old as the Universe

Higgs Boson = Cosmic Doomsday?

Why Are Black Holes so Bright?

March

'Monster' Starburst Galaxies Discovered in Early Universe

Curtains Down for the Black Hole Firewall Paradox: Making Gravity Safe for Einstein Again

Planck Shows Almost Perfect Cosmos—Plus Axis of Evil

April

Einstein’s Gravity Theory Passes Toughest Test Yet

Strange New Bursts of Gamma Rays Point to a New Way to Destroy a Star

Are the Newly Discovered Planets Ideal SETI Targets?

May

Giants Elliptical Galaxy Harbors Largest Known Black Hole in Universe

Hunting for Alien Megastructures

"Laws of Physics for a Holographic Universe"—New Theories of Space-Time

June

Giant Black Hole’s Dust Oddity Surprises Scientists

Time to Plan for A Mission to Alpha Centauri

Obese Black Hole Galaxies Could Reveal Quasar Secrets

July

If This Theory is Correct, We May Live in a Web of Alternate Timelines

Our Lopsided Universe is Darker, Lighter, Slower, Older & More Mysterious Than We Thought

How Giant Black Holes Spin: A New Twist Revealed

August

Oceanic Black Holes Found in Southern Atlantic

'Listening' to Black Holes Form With Gravity Waves

Inside the Enigma of Black Holes

September

Astronomers Discover Densest Galaxy Ever

Did a Hyper Black-Hole Spawn the Universe?

Supermassive Black Holes at Galaxy Centers—“Exit Doors From Our Universe”

October

"Other Universes Are Pulling on Our Universe"—New Planck Data Triggers Controversy

Seven-Planet Solar System Found

How Did Supermassive Black Holes Grow So Big?

November

Black Holes Don’t Make a Big Splash

"Distant, Younger Galaxies Look Very Different Than Nearby Galaxies"

New Type of Black Hole Quasar Discovered

December

Simulations Back Up Theory That Universe is a Hologram

Massive Stars Mark Out Milky Way’s ‘Missing’ Arms

Baffling Triple-Star System Reveals An Exoplanet and a Spectacular Ring of Comets

Stitched together some screencaps from UNLIMITED #11. Enjoy!

Partial Solar Eclipse 2015 by Sarah and Simon Fisher on Flickr.

Cleared by Adam Summers

About the work:

Trained as an engineer and mathematician [Summers] turned to biology to satisfy a deep need to interact with nature. His research applies simple physics and engineering principles to animals to understand the evolution of complex behaviors like feeding, movement and reproduction. The images shown here are the raw material that underlies his research…He is obsessed with fishes and has recently come to realize that the tools and aims of science, art and poetry are more congruent than he had supposed.

via staceythinx