Does it take millions of years to make petrified wood, or just a short period of time and the right conditions? 

Scientific research reveals that the right conditions will transform wood into stone. Biblical geologists have claimed this for years, and it has been recently confirmed by five Japanese scientists with their observations published in a secular geology journal. These scientists, led by Hisatada Akahane, studied a small lake cradled in the crater of the Tateyama Volcano in central Japan. The crater is filled with steaming acidic waters, which gush from the bottom of the lake. This mineral-rich solution fills a 35 foot pond with a waterfall that cascades over the edge. Fallen wood trapped in the overflow was found to be heavy and hard; it was totally petrified with the mineral silica. 

Surprising to old-earth geologists, this petrified wood was only 36 years old.

These scientists then experimented by fastening pieces of fresh wood on wires and lowering them into the lake. After seven years, they were found to be petrified, the carbon of the wood had been completely replaced by silica and the wood had turned to stone. All it takes to turn wood to stone is hot, mineral-rich waters. It does not take millions of years. The global flood of Noah’s time would have offered the right conditions, plenty of mineral rich water and volcanic activity. The reason we discover petrified wood in most rock layers around the globe. 

(Source: Inspired Evidence – Wood Petrified in Spring, Creation Magazine June – August 2006)