Petrification

Petrification is one of the key conflicts of Dr. Stone. Occurring with no known source, all of the humans and birds on Earth were turned to rock.

Details

One day, the humans and birds were mysteriously turned to stone. Prior to this event, only the birds had been suddenly petrified, being confused for fallen statues and ignored for the most part. The entire population of Earth was turned to rock later, reduced to mindless statues, with the exception of Senku and Taiju, who remained conscious. Thousands of years later, the two managed to break out, Senku wanting to find the reason behind the event and working to restore humanity.

Those who were revived from Petrification gets cracks on their face.

People who were "revived" after the Pre-Petrification World are:

• Senku (who kept his mind occupied the entire time)
• Taiju (out of coincidence)
• Tsukasa (by Taiju)
• Yuzuriha (by Taiju)
• Gen Asagiri (by Tsukasa)
• Yo (by Tsukasa)

Effects on Humans

• People under the effect of petrification quickly felt their mind shut down. Senku and Taiju managed to "survive" by counting the seconds they were trapped and thinking about Yuzuriha, respectively.
• Those encased in Stone had enough mental fortitude to yell for help and compare what they were feeling to sleep paralysis.
• The stone statues were as brittle as actual stones, and those broken apart effectively died. Senku confirms this when he tries the depetrification formula on a broken piece of someone, which results in a corpse.

Effects on the World

• Due to the event happening with no prior warning, people in vehicles crashed and broke apart.
• Nature and wildlife was allowed to run free, which soon consumed cities and civilization.
• Natural disasters such as flooding occurred with nothing to stop it, damaging the remains of humanity further.

Trivia

• Senku said that 3689 years and 158 days have passed since he was unable to move.
  • Calculating this, the petrification incident had happened around October or November, comparing Senku's awakening date to Taiju's, who woke up in October around six months after Senku.