Fifty millennia ago, volcanic ash and mud buried a forest of conifers along a Pacific shoreline in what is now southern Chile. In 1960, an earthquake loosened these sediments, and erosion then exposed the long-entombed trees. Now, by examining the tree rings of the remaining stumps, an international team of scientists has reconstructed the earliest year-to-year record yet of climate variation.
Log in
Subscribers, enter your e-mail address for full access to the Science News archives and digital editions.