Tree rings told about the reason for the victories of Genghis Khan. Free Technical Library News

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Tree rings told about the reason for the victories of Genghis Khan

14.12.2020

Dendrochronology is a field of science that was born just over a century ago. It became a hobby for astronomer Andrew Douglas of the University of Arizona.

He became interested in tree rings because they could tell a lot about past solar cycles and how they affected the Earth's climate. Douglas began to collect a base of tree rings growing from the middle of the 15th century. He then began to investigate an even more ancient source of data - wooden beams from the ruins of Puebloan in the southwestern United States. This is how dendrochronology appeared.

Researcher Valerie Truet believes that the tree rings recorded other important moments in human history. The unusually rainy years from 1211 to 1225 may have allowed the grass to cover the steppes of Central Asia, which became fodder for Genghis Khan's horses and the key to conquering the world of the Mongol Empire.

The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986 left its mark on the oddly aligned rings of surviving pine trees. The patterns on the $20 million Antonio Stradivari violin speak not only of the age of the violin itself, but also of the geographical origin of the wood from which it is made.

Tree ring data spanning over a thousand years has helped scientists reconstruct the planet's climate history.

Truet loves trees, but reassures them that he does not hug them when he comes to the forest and does not believe that trees are sentient. She seeks to uncover the secrets hidden inside the trees: "The tree is magnificent," writes Valerie. "And solving the map of the rings is like solving a puzzle. It's addictive." Valerie Trouet has described her love for trees and the secrets of dendrochronology in her new book Tree Story.

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