50,000 year old trees tell about ancient climate. Beth Tyler 05.25.01 If you’ve ever seen a tree stump, you may have noticed rings starting from the center of the stump and going to the edge. Each ring of the tree develops over a year, so the number of tree rings equals the tree’s age. The rings also give information about the weather. The width and density of a developing tree ring depends on the climate. The growth rings are bigger, when the weather is both wet and warm.    Scientists in Chile, South America, uncovered wood from very old conifer trees, Fitzroya cupressoides. Using a process called carbon dating, they determined that the trees were about 50,000 years old. The rings in these trees respond to summer temperatures. By looking at the rings of the conifer trees, the scientists could reconstruct temperature fluctuations in Chile 50,000 years ago. The tree rings don’t record what the exact temperature was, but they do show how temperatures changed from year to year.   Roig, Fidel A., Carlos Le-Quesne, Joes A. Bonindrhns, Keith R. Briffa, Antonio Lara, Hakan Grudd, Philip D. Jones, and Carolina Villagran. 2001. Climate variability 50,000 years ago in mid-latitute Chile as reconstructed from tree rings. Nature 410: 567-570. ©2001 The Aurora Collection, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Site Development by: Interactive Multimedia. Inc.