Counting Tree Growth Lines ?

[Frankdolin]

Nice to see some discussion of dendrochronology in the forum -- I spent my PhD research working in a geochronology lab (the Godwin Laboratory at Cambridge) alongside their dendrochronology group. I was working on a different dating technique (radiometric EPR dating of teeth and other archaelogical and geological minerals), but spent a lot of time socialising with them over tea and beers, and occasionally came along to their field trips to get me out of the lab.

Dendrochronology is a fascinating technique, and with a long enough sequence of tree rings you can get an absolute age for the time that the tree was alive. Doesn't tell you how old the instrument is, and unless the sequence includes the outer rings and the bark it also doesn't tell you when the tree was felled. However, if you have an imperfect match because the sequence is too short or because of microclimatic conditions distorting the sequence, you may end up in the wrong century (or millennium) altogether.

Martin

Martin, you never seize to amaze me !