Methuselah (tree)
Methuselah (English or Hebrew for Methuselah ) is the name of a long-lived pine ( Pinus longaeva ), which grows in the Inyo National Forest in the highest region of the White Mountains of Nevada and Death Valley at an altitude of about 3000 m. It was developed by Edmund Schulman, a scientist from the University of Arizona, studied, indicating her age as 4723 years ago in his report, published in 1958. She was so until 2012 as the oldest living tree. In another long-lived pine called Prometheus, which was in 1964 made by a geography student, an even higher age of 4862 years was recognized only after knocking and then counting the annual rings. The pines were used to create the Bristlecone Pines chronology called dendrochronological time series. It is used today to calibrate the radiocarbon dating.
The Methuselah Walk is a approx. 6,8 km loop trail that starts at the Visitor Center in the Schulman Grove and ends. He can be reached by Big Pine in the Owens Valley. In this way, there are 25 marked stations at which visitors use the brochure available at the Visitor Center, the versatile aspects about this amazing ecosystem are discussed. The station 15 describes the Methuselah Grove. Here are several trees whose age is more than 4,000 years. Even Methuselah itself is located here in the immediate vicinity, but is not marked for his safety. There is a way bid for the protection of soil and vegetation. Therefore, only the location of the forest area, but not that of individual tree are specified: 37 ° 23 ' N, 118 ° 11' W37.385666666667 - 118.17863888889.
On 4 September 2008, the visitor center of the Methuselah walks and some of the trees at the edge of the grove were destroyed in a forest fire. Opened in 2012, a new building.
Since 2012, Methuselah is no longer the record holder. A drill core sample, the Edmund Schulman had taken in the late 1950s but never evaluated, was first investigated. The tree from which the sample is known and survived, dating yielded an age of 5062 years, converted to the year 2012., This tree also stands in the White Mountains, its exact location will not be published.