Huon pine..how old ?? - Page 2

Robson Valley · #16 16th Feb 2012, 03:22 PM

I don't want to rain on anyone's parade.
What you need to do is cut the slice.
Then you X-Ray it
Then you run that through your integrating scanning densitometer.
I'm sure that everybody has these things in their wood shops.
That data feeds your climatic profile in your computer and you can
tell what the WX was like in 824 BCE
Whoopy-Friggin' Dooooo!

underfoot · #17 16th Feb 2012, 07:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robson Valley

Then you run that through your integrating scanning densitometer.!

I was always under the impression that ..1 growth ring = 1 year..

Robson Valley · #18 19th Feb 2012, 12:56 PM

Undie, that's true enough but unusual droughts can and will shock the tree into producing a false (additional) ring. One clue is that you've found two adjacent rings in the same width/space as many of the other single ones which are older or newer. . . . . think "drought."
If you were able to sample a number of trees in the region and found the same thing at the same time, counting back behind the present = drought.

Robson Valley · #19 19th Feb 2012, 04:18 PM

The Chinese have documented that the soil movements in earthquakes damage so many root hairs that the trees will be shocked into a false ring. They're going back in time with their dendrochronology records, looking for regional quakes from centuries ago, the record preserved in the growth ring map of ancient building timbers.