Dead and Buried

Spruce trees were on the agenda last week. Including some really old spruce trees in Sweden.

Since then it has occurred to me that I should say something about the even older spruce trees in Wisconsin. They may be deader than a door nail but they are definitely older. There is a buried glacial forest just south of here.

Two Creeks Buried Forest State Natural Area is part of the Wisconsin State Natural Areas Program and a unit of the Ice Age National Scientific Reserve. Approximately 25 acres in size it lies in the northeast corner of Manitowoc County on the Lake Michigan shoreline just north of Two Creeks. I’ve ridden my bicycle past this location countless times.

Anyway, the soil strata along the shoreline contain the remains of a forest buried in glacial till.

Carbon dating of the buried forest’s remains traces it to 11,850 years Before Present.

Big deal Swamp Gas. Why is this important?

For starters the dating of the buried forest fixes the time frame of glacial advances and retreats during Wisconsin’s last glaciations.

The lowest layer of glacial till was deposited by an earlier glaciation. During a warming interval this glacier retreated. The intervening period was sufficiently long enough for forests to establish themselves. Conifers including pine, spruce and hemlock thrived. As the climate cooled again the glaciers once again advanced. Lake Michigan’s drainage was disrupted by the ice sheets and the forest was buried under additional glacial till.

Additionally, 12,000 years-or-so may seem like a long time. And it would be in human terms. However it is barely a fraction of second in geologic terms.

Funny how the earth cooled and warmed seemingly all by itself.