Metasequoia

Metasequoia

A large piece of metasequoia tree trunk, also known as dawn redwood, found in a diamond-bearing kimberlite pipe at Lac de Gras. The metasequoia, a deciduous conifer, was a common swamp plant around 52 million years ago. At that time the region, today a tundra landscape, was humid, temperate, and forested. When the kimberlite volcano erupted, the remains of the tree collapsed into the top and was encased in the kimberlite rock. It is real wood, not mineralized or petrified, and is sometimes referred to as ’fossil wood’.