Baldcypress tree ring elemental concentrations at Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee from AD 1795 to AD 1820

Abstract

Many two hundred year old baldcypress trees in Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee, lived through the great New Madrid earthquakes of 1811--1812. This study was undertaken to determine if the elemental composition of baldcypress tree rings showed any systematic variation through the earthquake period of AD 1795 through AD 1820. Multiple cores were collected from two Reelfoot Lake baldcypress trees and analyzed using Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). Individual yearly rings and five-year ring segments were analyzed to determine their elemental compositions. The cores were analyzed for Li through U but only Ba, Ce, Cs, Cu, I, La, Mg, Mn, Nd, Rb, Sm, Sr, and Zn were found to be in appropriate concentrations for this study. Of these elements only Ce, I, La, Nd, Rb, and Sm showed any systematic changes within individual cores. Comparison of three cores taken from one tree reveal that tree-ring elemental concentrations and changes in tree-ring elemental concentration through time are very different among the cores. When comparing the elemental concentrations of tree rings for the same years in the two different trees neither elemental concentrations nor changes in elemental concentration through time were similar. We conclude that the elemental concentrations in the tree rings of the two baldcypress trees analyzed in this study show no systematic change through the earthquake period of AD 1795 through AD 1820.