Trees do far more than provide shade and clean air. According to research presented in 2005, pine trees in Georgia have quietly preserved a record of hurricanes stretching back hundreds of years. The discovery offers scientists a valuable new way to study long-term storm patterns beyond the limits of written history.
Researchers studying longleaf pine trees near Valdosta, Georgia, discovered that the trees contain unmistakable signs of hurricanes preserved within their annual growth rings. Every storm leaves behind a unique chemical fingerprint, allowing scientists to identify individual hurricanes long after they passed.
