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Article: TREE-RING RESEARCHERS RECONSTRUCTING HISTORY.(Living Today)
- Article from:
- Albany Times Union (Albany, NY)
- Article date:
- September 14, 1988
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1988 Albany Times Union. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Steve Peters Dallas Morning News
Every schoolkid learns that a tree's age can be told by counting the rings in a cross section of its trunk. Wide and narrow rings, they learn, denote good and bad growing years, respectively.
By extending these simple concepts, scientists have traced variations in regional climate during centuries past and charted the rise and fall of ancient civilizations from wooden artifacts they've left behind.
Today, new tree ring studies are helping scientists reconstruct the history of natural cataclysms - volcanoes, earthquakes, solar disturbances, forest fires and droughts - some dating back thousands of years ...