Tectonic deformation revealed in baldcypress trees at Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee

Technical Report · Mon Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 1991

OSTI ID:5667361

VanArsdale, R; Stahle, D; Cleaveland, M ^[1]

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1. Arkansas Univ., Fayetteville, AR (USA)

Tree-ring analyses of baldcypress (Taxodium distichum) from Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee, support historical accounts that the lake formed during the great New Madrid earthquakes of 1811--1812. Due to ground subsidence and permanent flooding all of the bottomland hardwood trees within the impounded area were killed. However, many water tolerant baldcypress survived, and hundreds of 200 to 800 year old baldcypress outline the positions of former stream channels drowned by the subsidence. Dendrochronological analyses of multiple cores from 21 baldcypress in the lake reveal several pronounced growth responses to the 1811--1812 earthquakes. These responses include a great surge in radial growth during the decade following the earthquakes and a permanent reduction in wood density beginning in 1812. These and other growth responses to the 1811--1912 earthquakes may allow us to determine if there have been other large earthquakes in the Reelfoot basin during the late Holocene and may help date the formation of other suspected sunk lands in the New Madrid seismic zone. 14 refs., 6 figs.

• Research Organization: Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (United States). Div. of Engineering; Arkansas Univ., Fayetteville, AR (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USNRC; Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (United States)
• OSTI ID: 5667361
• Report Number(s): NUREG/CR-5749; ON: TI91015468
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

58 GEOSCIENCES
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
EARTHQUAKES
AGE ESTIMATION
TREE RINGS
PLANT GROWTH
DENSITY
HISTORICAL ASPECTS
LAKES
SEISMIC EFFECTS
TECTONICS
TENNESSEE
TREES
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
FEDERAL REGION IV
GROWTH
NORTH AMERICA
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PLANTS
SEISMIC EVENTS
SURFACE WATERS
USA
580000* - Geosciences
550800 - Morphology