My latest scientific foray has been tree rings. According to legend, the pond across from our house suddenly appeared one year in the 50's and no one could explain it. I thought that tree rings might offer some insight so I bought an increment borer and proceeded to attack all the trees around our house. To my surprise none were older than I am! (makes one feel REALLY old!)
Since then I have probed trees from Arizona to Wyoming looking for the oldest examples I could find. The pines growing in the rocky crags of Wyoming hold the current record at 300 years. In the graph below you can see the varying growth patterns that correlate to rainfall in the eastern high desert of this state.
The Wyoming pine tree on the left is growing in the high desert of the eastern end of the state. Most of these unassuming trees are over a hundred years old with the oldest I have found at 300.
The graph above shows the spacing of the rings on this tree over the last hundred years which correlates to rain fall.
Cored tree samples in their mounts.