Petrified- Literally "Turned to Stone"

As the water flowed down the mountain into the soil and then reached the ark, the structure members nearest the top were petrified with molecules of the substances in the earth ABOVE the ark, which were minerals. As the water flowed over the midsection of the ark, it had picked up molecules from the ark structures it had flowed over prior to reaching the midsection. Therefore, it began to be petrified with substances from its own structure in addition to the substances in the soil above it. At least that is what SHOULD have occurred if the object really is the ark.

The evidence at the site shows that this IS exactly what happened. The deck timber which Ron obtained from the approximate mid-section of the ship contained over 13% iron- iron which came from the metal fittings of the structure above mid-section.

The majority of molecules involved in the petrification process are molecules from the natural substances in the earth and the lava. The first analyses Ron had performed on his specimens from the site showed an approximate 51% silica content. That's fine- The "Encyclopaedia Brittanica", 1985 ed., vol. 19, page 506, (under "volcanoes") states:

" Magma consists of a molten-silicate mass within the earth, of various composition..."

In fact, all petrified objects contain a great deal of silica simply due to its abundance in the soil.

The Sure-Fire Test

But there is one substance that is NOT found in natural minerals, which we will now discuss. As I began to study the subject of "carbon", which involves the study of chemistry, which is a little involved for me, I learned some very interesting facts. Compounds of carbon can be analyzed to determine whether they are composed of matter that was non-organic, or organic, which means it can be determined whether they were once living-matter or not. It's that simple. Therefore, the one test to determine if an object was organic (once living), or not is to determine its carbon content- whether it contains organic carbon or not.

When Ron brought the petrified deck timber home, he, as well as all who saw it, knew that it LOOKED like a piece of wood turned to stone (petrified). However, looks CAN be deceiving, so he took it to Galbraith Labs to be analyzed. Chiselling a sample from the specimen (on camera), they analyzed it and found that it did contain inorganic carbon (.0081%). However, it also contained .7019% ORGANIC CARBON, which is over 100 times more than the amount of inorganic carbon!

Every petrified object ever found that was once living,- tree branch, bone, sea shell, etc.,- will show organic carbon in its analysis. So, the deck timber specimen WAS once composed of living matter! Since it didn't look like a bone or a shell, we feel pretty confident in stating that it is petrified wood.

OK, we have decaying lava which is revealing the presence of petrified objects that look like wood and contain large amounts of iron and other metals. Remember we discussed how the substances found in the petrified object got there by being washed in from flowing water which had first past over other substances? So where did the iron come from? In order for there to be such a high percentage of iron in the petrified wood, the water which effected its petrification had to pass over a large amount of iron prior to reaching the petrifying object. The soil above the ark does not contain that much iron. One control specimen taken from the area OUTSIDE the ark, but within 50 or so yards, revealed a .54% iron and .77% ferric oxide content. If we are to believe that the petrified wood received its iron content from the naturally-occurring iron in the region above the ship, we would have to believe that the entire iron content of the region was gathered up by the waters and deposited ONLY in the petrified wood. In other words, it's impossible.

The large amounts of metals in the petrified wood could only come from one place- from the water passing over a LARGE amount of metal in the ark's structure- metal which we now know composes the thousands of fittings which held the timbers together. Next...