Axel Heiberg Island's Mysterious Remains

located in northern Canada near to Greenland

 Axel Heiberg Island

I’d never heard of Axel Heiberg Island before, not until I accidentally came across it when I was looking for something else on the internet (dinosaur DNA). When I saw the words “fossilized wood can still be burnt or sawn in two”, I was immediately curious enough to find out more about this strange find. You see, if the wood is still ‘wood’, then it isn’t fossilized, well not in my mind.
     The island itself is located in the Canadian Arctic, close to Greenland, and it is Canada’s seventh largest island. According to Statistics Canada, it has an area of 16,671 square miles. In world ranking it comes in at number 31 in size. Today it is a cold and barren place that bears no resemblance to the temperate forested land it once was.

 So what about this “fossilized wood” being found on Axel Heiberg Island? Those scientists who believe in the “old earth” theory and not the “young earth” theory, believe that 40 million years ago, the Arctic was covered by a lush forest of large conifer trees and other fauna, and although it had only six months of daylight each year, the average temperature was mild enough for the forest to thrive, along with a variety of dinosaurs. Then came the flood, or many floods, as some scientists claim, which covered the forest. During this time the silt in the waters covered the trees and other plant life, protecting them from the mineral rich waters which would have normally permineralized them (replaced with silica) and turned them to stone. Then, when the weather in the Arctic changed, the new climate of cold, dry air dried out and desiccated the remains of the trees and plants, causing them to become “mummified”.
     The wood, and other fauna remains, that are reported as being 40 million years old, can be cut in two and burnt on a fire. In fact, scientists say that the wood is so well preserved because it suffered no chemical changes during the time of “preservation”, and also, that its original woodgrain, as well as its bark, has been fully preserved, meaning it has lasted all these millions of years without rotting, eroding, or turning to dust.
     One of the redwood conifer species Metosequoia, found as mummified on this island, was supposed to be extinct. However, in 1944/45 it was discovered to be thriving in central China. Today, one can find living examples of this tree, this “living fossil”, in the Toronto Botanical Gardens as well as in other places.
     There is something nagging me about these ‘facts’. It’s easy for me to accept the flood, the famous one when God told Noah to build his ark. But one internet site mentions there were as many as ten floods that covered this prehistoric forest. By the time the layers of silt built up deep enough to cover the large, fallen tree trunks, wouldn’t the trees have simply rotted away? I mean 40 million years is a very long period of time! In order for this “silt-covered” theory to work, wouldn’t it have had to have happened all at one go? I’m not a scientist. I don’t know the answers, but I know that if I took a fire log from my woodpile and laid it in my back swamp, that in 20 years it wouldn’t exist. In about five years it would be black, soggy, and very heavy, and most definitely rotten. Scientists say that conditions have to be just right. I’ll accept that, but to find leaves and pine cones still as they were after 40 million years doesn’t quite ring true with me, for surely they would have got washed away in said floods, and carried off to some distant land? And surely if these leaves were “desiccated” they would have turned to dust after all these millennia and blown away on the wind. It’s a mystery to me, but the remains do exist. As to how old they are is something that everyone will probably never agree upon.

Images of dried leaves and pine cones from Axel Heiberg Island, reported to be millions of years in age.

My sources were Wikipedia: just search for Alex Heiberg Island; or go to this site: click here hoopermuseum.earthsci.carleton.ca/forest/eocene14.html

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