00:00 This man is risking his life to hunt for tree fossils that are 20 million years old,
00:08 from a time long before the first humans appeared.
00:12 Pieces of petrified wood could unlock mysteries from our past.
00:20 But every year, thousands of fossils are turned into furniture, plates, and even ashtrays.
00:39 Items can sell abroad for up to four times what Indonesian miners make in an entire year.
00:48 So what kinds of secrets can we learn from these ancient treasures?
00:56 And why is it so dangerous to dig them up?
01:00 It takes a perfect combination of rare events for wood to transform this way.
01:11 First, you need a lack of oxygen to stop decomposition.
01:17 That can happen when a tree falls into a river or is buried under wet soil.
01:22 The water swells up the wood, opening its cavities.
01:26 Then you need a volcanic eruption so silica from the ash can seep in and fill the spaces.
01:34 It will start forming crystals, copying the exact texture of the tree, molecule by molecule.
01:42 Over time, the entire trunk crystallizes into different kinds of solid quartz.
01:48 It's one of the hardest materials on earth.
01:53 Miners can feel it underground with an iron rod.
02:12 Eli Suheili dug these mines himself with the help of his co-workers.
02:17 He's 68 years old, but still goes in barefoot, bringing only a hammer and a crowbar.
02:29 This mine is about 10 feet deep.
02:38 It isn't reinforced or secured in any way, and there are no ventilation shafts.
02:44 Eli finds a few fossils within minutes of digging.
03:06 [Squeaking]
03:16 He scrapes at the walls to see if there's any wood hidden there.
03:20 [Squeaking]
03:38 In 2016, 12 men died when a mine collapsed nearby.
03:48 Eli has never lost a friend, but he has been injured before.
03:52 Digging here technically requires a permit,
04:11 but officials will only issue them if miners have the right kind of equipment.
04:16 Eli says most can't afford it, so they risk working illegally.
04:43 Today, this is the biggest log they found.
04:46 It's about three times heavier than a piece of wood of the same size.
04:51 [Squeaking]
05:01 [Squeaking]
05:27 [Speaking in foreign language]
05:42 They've even dug up pieces weighing up to four tons.
05:46 That's about the weight of a medium-sized truck.
05:49 They could get $480 for a log that big.
05:54 But they divide the money, and they have to pay the landowner, too.
05:58 In the end, they're each left with about $60 for a month's work.
06:07 That's about half the minimum wage in this part of Indonesia.
06:11 Ultimately, the wood is marked up and sells for a lot more than what miners initially get for it.
06:20 But Eli says mining is more stable than other jobs,
06:24 because there's so much petrified wood here.
06:27 Wood polishers then transfer these slabs to a workshop.
06:48 [Sawing]
06:59 37-year-old Sukeli has been polishing pieces for almost a decade,
07:05 turning them into plates, stools, and tables.
07:09 [Speaking in foreign language]
07:16 [Sawing]
07:22 Like most gems, petrified wood can only be cut with a diamond-tipped blade.
07:28 [Speaking in foreign language]
07:47 [Sawing]
07:53 [Music]
08:01 The fossils in this part of Indonesia come from a kind of tree called sempur.
08:06 They were alive 20 million years ago, when the earth was warmer.
08:15 As the wood hardened into rock, it turned beige, white, or this black color.
08:24 [Speaking in foreign language]
08:34 [Sawing]
08:36 It can take up to three weeks to make the bigger items, like this table.
08:40 [Sawing]
08:45 He can finish smaller ones, like plates, in two days.
08:49 [Speaking in foreign language]
08:56 He works with Kirono, a middleman who places custom orders on behalf of international clients,
09:02 who pay twice as much as local shops.
09:05 But there's no fixed price.
09:07 Each piece is valued depending on the color and patterns.
09:14 They told us they sold this table for about $3,800.
09:19 [Speaking in foreign language]
09:34 But to him, the work is also about building a reputation for his country.
09:39 [Sawing]
09:44 [Speaking in foreign language]
09:52 [Speaking in foreign language]
10:02 Halfway across the world, in Arizona,
10:05 this national park holds more petrified wood than anywhere else on earth.
10:11 Here, it's much older than in Indonesia, about 200 million years old,
10:16 from the time dinosaurs still roamed the earth.
10:19 Paleontologist William Parker took us on a walk through this forest, frozen in time.
10:27 These trees give us clues of what lived and grew during various times in earth's history,
10:37 when, say, CO2 levels are at a high level and there was no polar ice.
10:42 By examining the color and thickness of the tree rings,
10:47 scientists can sometimes figure out what the climate was when the tree grew.
10:51 They can then use that data to figure out how different weather conditions
10:57 could affect life as we know it.
10:59 Even today, the earth is changing.
11:03 It's important for us to understand what makes it in those type of environments.
11:07 Taking even a chip of petrified wood from here is illegal.
11:12 But officials say tourists steal some anyway.
11:17 I'm clear of Highway 180.
11:21 Though sometimes they send it back.
11:28 As much as we'd like to tell people they'll be cursed if they illegally collect wood,
11:33 they're really not cursed, except for maybe a guilty conscience.
11:37 Because what happens is people start sending us back a whole bunch of stuff.
11:41 The U.S. government spends about $4 million annually to maintain and preserve the park.
11:47 But without federal protection, this natural and scientific wonder could disappear.
11:55 Trees are a major part of our ecosystem and we need to understand everything we can about them.
11:59 Hopefully we can better manage those ecosystems
12:02 or make changes that'll give them the best chance for success.
12:06 In 1941, researchers tried to figure out how much the petrified wood here is worth.
12:13 They estimated that all the visible pieces in this park
12:18 would amount to about $200 million when adjusted for inflation.
12:24 And that doesn't even account for all the trees that are still buried.
12:28 But the park does not place importance on the monetary value of this wood.
12:34 So if we were to collect every single piece of petrified wood on earth and put it in
12:41 stores or collections or in people's houses, we lose the scientific context.
12:47 All across the U.S., people can mine on property they own
12:53 and sell their pieces for thousands of dollars.
12:56 This furniture store in New York City has petrified wood items
13:03 ranging anywhere from $500 to $5,000 each.
13:07 Philip Tuan travels to Indonesia himself to pick out these finds.
13:14 But he doesn't buy from the people we followed for this story.
13:18 Petrified woods are very unique.
13:20 You can't expect what you're going to get, right?
13:23 Before the petrified get milled and cut open, sometimes you don't see what's inside there.
13:29 Stumps sell for anywhere between $1,400 and $1,800 each.
13:35 The bigger items, like tables, go for more,
13:38 ranging in price from about $1,000 to $5,000, depending on the size.
13:45 And it's a piece of the heritage of the whole planet.
13:47 It's just, you know, it's really heavy, solid. It's not going to break down or do anything.
13:51 It's just always going to be beautiful forever. So that's pretty cool, too.
13:55 Back in Indonesia, miners like Eli don't have the privilege of buying these pieces.
14:04 Eli didn't get past elementary school because he had to start working.
14:31 He used to be a motorbike taxi driver, but it wasn't enough to sustain his family.
14:36 So he became a miner, like most other men in this area.
14:55 They own only a petrified wood tray, a small memento from all of Eli's years of mining.
15:02 [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
15:04 [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
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