If you saw the headline about a drill bit breaking on a mysterious hard layer near Mount Ararat, the natural next question is: what actually confirms whether it’s wood?
What’s confirmed so far
American researcher Andrew Jones of Noah’s Ark Scans reported that a drill bit broke against an unusually hard layer at a depth of 4 to 5 meters during core drilling at the Durupınar site. Jones said the layer may be petrified or mineralized wood — but that’s currently a field observation, not a lab-confirmed result.
The next step: third-party lab testing
Per Jones’s report, the finding is pending third-party lab testing. That’s the step that would actually determine what the hard material is — whether it’s petrified/mineralized wood, a mineral deposit, or something else entirely. No testing organization, method, or timeline for that specific analysis is confirmed in the available reporting.
👥 Who’s involved:
- Andrew Jones (Noah’s Ark Scans) — reported the broken drill bit and the petrified-wood possibility
- Third-party lab — will run the testing that determines what the layer actually is; not yet identified in current reports
- Sivas Cumhuriyet University team, led by Prof. Dr. Cenker Atila — running the broader 2026 excavation, with core samples separately sent to Ankara
How this fits into the wider dig
This hard-layer finding is separate from the general core and soil sample work: the wider excavation collected roughly 1,000 soil samples from 150 locations and cores up to 18 meters deep, which were sent to Ankara. Radiocarbon dating and lab analysis on the broader material are planned over the winter. It’s not confirmed whether the 4–5 meter hard layer is part of that same Ankara batch or being handled through a separate third-party process — the reporting keeps these as distinct threads.
⚠️ Until the third-party lab results come back, “petrified wood” remains a possibility Jones has raised, not a confirmed finding. Worth checking back with Noah’s Ark Scans or the outlets below once those results surface.
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