Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, California - World's Oldest | Out in the Field with Jeremy Patrich

Join me on an adventure, 'Out in the Field' as I adventure out to explore The Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest up in the White Mountains along Eastern California. These trees are remarkable, as they are considered some of the oldest living trees in the world... over 4,000 years old. We will introduce the geology, the history and explain how we know the ages of these trees.

In the White Mountains, the Ancient Bristlecone Pines seem to show a preference for growing on the white, rocky soil that gives the name to this mountain range. This is dolomite, a type of limestone created under the warm, shallow, inland sea that once covered this area.

Scientists use a device called an increment borer to extract a small cross-section of a tree. This sample provides a look at each tree ring and enables scientists to determine both the age of the tree and the pattern of its growth. There are many trees in the bristlecone pine forest of the White Mountains that exceed 4000 years of age, and are still growing. Recent research indicates there is a living tree older than 5,000 years.

Dendrochronology (or tree-ring dating) is the scientific method of dating tree rings (also called growth rings) to the exact year they were formed. As well as dating them, this can give data for dendroclimatology, the study of climate and atmospheric conditions during different periods in history from wood.

Because the bristlecone pines of this grove provided the wood to recalibrate the radiocarbon dating method, they have become known as the trees that rewrote history.


Geographic Features Observed: dolomite, dendrochronology, absolute dating, uplift, sedimentary, Mt. Whitney, Sheep Mountain, White Mountains, Bishop, Patriarch Tree


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#Geography, #Geology, #Bristlecone, #California, #RoadTrip