The Tunguska Event as Recorded in a Tree Trunk
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9245226 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Hitoshi Yonenobu (0000-0002-1596-7543), Chisato Takenaka |
| Year | 1997 |
| Volume | 40 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 367-371 |
| Publication date | 1997-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Radiocarbon (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0033-8222 • E-ISSN: 1945-5755 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0033822200018245 |
| OpenAlex | W2223281309 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 10 |
A living spruce tree was collected near the explosion center of the Tunguska event that occurred in 1908. We measured annual ring width and studied anatomical features to reconstruct the possible vegetational changes caused by the biological aftereffects of the Tunguska explosion. δ 14 C of annual rings from 1908 to 1910 was measured with a Tandetron accelerator mass spectrometer. The annual ring width decreased rapidly in 1908–1912, drastically increased in 1913, and decreased gradually thereafter. Traumatic resin ducts were observed in the transition zone between early- and latewood of the annual ring formed in 1908. We thus reconstruct these vegetational changes in the Tunguska forest: the Tunguska explosion damaged forest trees severely for ca . 3 yr, releasing rich nutrients from burned plants into the soil, and subsequently the vegetation was stimulated to recover by decreased socio-biological competition and better lighting conditions. δ 14 C values range from −28.2 to −1.5% for Tunguska spruce, and from −29.7 to 12.6% for Hinoki cypress. These fluctuations are within the ranges presented in Stuiver and Becker (1993), suggesting no evidence of anomalies of cometary origin in carbon isotopic composition. We found no significant difference between δ 14 C of Tunguska spruce and of Hinoki cypress
Biology · Cypress · Dendrochronology · Geography · Physical geography · Radiocarbon dating · Environmental Science · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · Isotope Analysis in Ecology · Tree-ring climate responses · Ecology · Forestry · Geology · Paleontology
| Citations per year | 0.13 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2010 - 2011 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |