The Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Creationism (2018)

and a slightly acidic pH (Karowe and Jefferson 1987: Riggs et al. 2003). However, Weibel (1996) reports of petrified wood that was discovered in sediment with no history of hot springs or volcanoes. In this study, fossilized wood pieces were collected from the Red Hills Lignite Mine, MS, USA (33 o N latitude). These specimens were collected by Dr. David Lang in 2008. Figure 1 shows that the specimens were found in the “E seam,” which is 30 m below the current surface level and a part of the Nanafalia formation of the Wilcox Group. The lignite seam is occasionally intercalated by clay layers ranging between 0.2 and 1.5 m. According to conventional evolutionary history, the Nanafalia Formation was deposited during the Late Paleocene-Early Eocene epochs ~56+ million years ago Dockery and Thompson 2016). In geological history, Mississippi does not show evidences of experiencing volcanic activity past the Cretaceous Period (65-135 million years ago according to evolutionary history). In the Red Hills Lignite Mine, wood is preserved in three ways: lignification (coalification), siliceous petrification, and mummification (Blackwell and Marak 1989). Coalification converts wood into lignite, a process in which internal wood structures can be preserved. Petrification also preserves the original wood structures. Petrification is traditionally known to occur through two preservation processes: permineralization or replacement. Permineralization occurs when pores or cavities are filled with minerals. Replacement occurs when the original organic materials are replicated by inorganic minerals. Recently, Mustoe (2017) argued that these two processes are not independent, but, rather occur contemporaneously. If the alternative material is a silica (silicon dioxide), it is specifically called “silicification.” Silicification even varies within a single specimen: cell wall mineralization or silica deposition in open pores by permeation (Mustoe 2015; Oehler and Schopf 1971). Petrified wood is the most common type of fossilized wood in Mississippi and was designated the state stone of Mississippi in 1976. Another type of fossilized wood is mummified wood in which original organic wood has been preserved through dehydration; in other words, the wood has not been permineralized and was buried rapidly likely due to a catastrophic event, such as the Genesis Flood or a subsequent local catastrophe. Although mummified wood occurs abundantly in Mississippi (Brown 1938), it has not been well reported, and the mummification process remains unknown. Reports of Eocene mummified wood was found in Europe, Antarctica, and the Arctic (Erdei et al. 2009; Jahren 2007; Jefferson 1982; Vassio et al. 2008; Wolfe et al. 2012). These authors make comments about “sudden inundation,” revealing a high rate effect that occurred in the conditions to induce this phenomenon. The worldwide occurrences indicate that a worldwide event such as Noah’s Flood was likely causative. Fossilized wood specimens exhibiting petrified regions and mummified regions on each side of the same piece of wood were examined to investigate the geological history in Mississippi. Since the samples were collected in the lignite mine, coalification, petrification, and mummification could occur within the same depositional sediments. However, in this study, the focus was on petrification and mummification because of the particular specimens that we found. METHOD Figure 2a is a photograph of what appears to be mummified wood in the middle of a lignite pile with petrified wood at the lignite mine. Figure 2b is a photograph one of the samples used for experiments. The right side of the sample is petrified wood, while the left side of the sample is mummified wood. These wood pieces were hauled from the ‘E seam’ in the Red Hills Lignite Mine with large mining equipment. These samples were used to examine the microstructure, chemical composition, and hardness of the material. The structures of the samples were characterized by using an optical microscope and a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Petrified and mummified wood samples were cut and mounted into epoxy using a cold mount technique and then thoroughly polished to observe the cross section. Four other samples including petrified, partially petrified, mummified wood, and lignite were prepared in order to study the fracture surfaces using a Carl-Zeiss Supra40 Field Emission Gun (FEG)-SEM. Each sample was sputter coated with a gold/palladium mixture. The Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) on the SEM was also used to carry out chemical analysis of the petrified wood and mummified wood. EDS analysis measured the relative amount of weight for each chemical component. In order to measure hardness at the nanoscale, nano-indentation tests were conducted using a Triboindenter® (Hysitron Incorporated, Minneapolis) with Lee et al. ◀ Partially petrified wood ▶ 2018 ICC 239 Figure 2. Left (2a) : Mummified wood in the middle of lignite pile at the site of Red Hills Lignite Mine, MS. Right 2(b) : A single piece of fossilized wood including regions of mummified wood and petrified wood.