24 Million Years Old

This tree stump is 24,000,000 years old. The west of Lesbos is volcanic. All those years ago there was a huge eruption under the sea that spewed up molten lava onto the land. Because the oxygen had been dissipated the tree did not burn but was preserved in the ash and rock as happened in Pompeii. This is a part of a petrified forest on the island which has only really come properly to light over the past couple of decades. One of the tree has a circumference of 8.3 metres!