Why Hunting For 20-Million-Year-Old Petrified Wood Is So Dangerous In Indonesia | Risky Business

this man is risking his life to hunt for tree fossils that are 20 million years old from a Time long before the first humans appeared pieces of petrified wood could unlock mysteries from our past [Laughter] but every year thousands of fossils are turned into Furniture plates and even ashtrays items can sell abroad for up to four times what Indonesian miners make in an entire year so what kinds of Secrets can we learn from these ancient treasures and why is it so dangerous to dig them up it takes a perfect combination of rare events for wood to transform this way first you need a lack of oxygen to stop decomposition that can happen when a tree falls into a river or is buried under wet soil the water swells up the Wood opening its cavities then you need a volcanic eruption so silica from the ash can seep in and fill the spaces it will start forming crystals copying the exact texture of the tree molecule by molecule over time the entire trunk crystallizes into different kinds of solid quartz it's one of the hardest materials on Earth miners can feel it underground with an iron rod Ellie Su dug these Minds himself with the help of his co-workers he's 68 years old but still goes in Barefoot bringing only a hammer and a crowbar this mine is about 10 ft deep it isn't reinforced or secured in any way and there are no ventilation shafts [Music] Ellie finds a few fossils within minutes of [Music] digging he scrapes at the walls to see if there's any wood hidden there [Music] in 2016 12 men died when a mine collapsed [Music] nearby Ellie has never lost a friend but he has been injured before digging here technically requires a permit but officials will only issue them if miners have the right kind of equipment Ellie says most can't afford it so they risk working illegally for today this is the biggest log they found it's about three times heavier than a piece of wood of the same size yeah [Music] fore go but egg yeah they've even dug up pieces weighing up to 4 tons that's about the weight of a medium-sized truck they could get $480 for a log that big but they divide the money and they have to pay the landowner too in the end they're each left with about $60 for a month's work that's about half the minimum wage in this part of Indonesia ultimately the wood is marked up and sells for a lot more than what miners initially get for it but Ellie says mining is more stable than other jobs because there's so much petrified wood here [Music] wood polishers then transferred these slabs to a workshop [Music] 37-year-old Su has been polishing pieces for almost a decade turning them into plates stools and [Music] tables like most gems petrified wood can only be cut with a diamond tipped blade for [Music] the fossils in this part of Indonesia come from a kind of tree called senur they were alive 20 million years ago when the Earth was warmer as the wood hardened into rock it turned beige white or this black color it can take up to 3 weeks to make the bigger items like this table he can finish smaller ones like plates in two days he works with Kono a middleman who places C custom orders on behalf of international clients who pay twice as much as local shops but there's no fixed price each piece is valued depending on the color and patterns they told us they sold this table for about $3,800 but to him the work is also about building a reputation for his country [Applause] [Music] halfway across the world in Arizona this National Park holds more petrified wood than anywhere else on Earth here it's much older than in Indonesia about 200 million years old from the time dinosaurs still roam the Earth paleontologist William Parker took us on a walk through this Forest Frozen in Time these trees give us clues of what lived and grew during various times in Earth's history when say CO2 levels are at a high level and there was no Polar Ice by examining the color and thickness of the tree rings scientists can sometimes figure out what the climate was when the tree grew they can then use that data to figure out how different weather conditions could affect life as we know it even today the the Earth is changing it's important for us to understand what makes it in those type of environments taking even a chip of petrified wood from here is illegal but officials say tourists steal some anyway go ahead I'm clear a Highway 180 thank you 155 though sometimes they send it back as much as you know we'd like to tell people they'll be cursed if they legally collect wood they're really not cursed uh except for maybe a guilty conscience CU what happens is people start sending us back a whole bunch of stuff the US government spends about $4 million annually to maintain and preserve the park but without Federal Protection this natural and scientific Wonder Could disappear trees are a major part of our ecosystem and we need to understand everything we can about them and hopefully we can better manage those ecosystems or make changes that'll give them the best chance for success in 1941 researchers tried to figure out how much the Petrified Wood here is worth they estimated that all the visible pieces in this park would amount to about $200 million when adjusted for inflation and that doesn't even account for all the trees that are still buried but the park does not Place importance on the monetary value of this wood so if we were to collect every single piece of petrified wood on earth and put it in stores or collections or in people's houses we lose to scientific context all across the US people can mine on property they own and sell their pieces for thousands of dollars this furniture store in New York City has petrified wood items ranging anywhere from $500 to $5,000 each Philip Tuan travels to Indonesia himself to pick out these finds but he doesn't buy from the people we followed for this story Peta Woods are very unique you can't expect what you're going to get right before the the patf fire get M and cut cut open sometime you don't see what's inside there stumps sell for anywhere between $1,400 and $1,800 each the bigger items like tables go for more ranging in price from about $1,000 to $5,000 depending on the size and it's a piece of the heritage of the whole planet it's just you know it's really heavy solid it's not going to break down or do anything it's just always going to be beautiful forever so that's pretty cool too back in Indonesia miners like Ellie don't have the privilege of buying these [Applause] pieces Ellie didn't get past elementary school because he had to start working he used to be a motorbike taxi driver but it wasn't enough to sustain his family so he became a minor like most other men in this [Music] area they own only a petrified wood tray a small moment from all of Ellie's years of mining [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Business Insider

Views: 2,833,769

Keywords: Business Insider, Business News, petrified wood, arizona, indonesia

Id: h6IZFP9_GSA

Length: 15min 24sec (924 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 23 2024