Chinese Pompeii: 300 million years old forest preserved in ash
February 22nd, 2012 - 9:08 pm ICT by Aishwarya BhattBeijing, Feb 22 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Researchers in China have found a preserved forest in the northeastern part of China which dates back to the ancient times. The forest was covered by about a meter of ash.
It is estimated that the ash fell about 300 million years ago killing most of the trees but incredibly preserving many of them as well. The researchers have likened the find to Italy’s Pompeii.
Study co-author Hermann Pfefferkorn of the University of Pennsylvania in the US explained that, “It’s like Pompeii,” he said. “Pompeii gives us deep insight into Roman culture, but it doesn’t say anything about Roman history in and of itself. But on the other hand, it elucidates the time before and the time after. This finding is similar. It’s a time capsule and therefore it allows us now to interpret what happened before or after much better.”
Details of the forest find have been penned in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The forest has been reconstructed on the canvas. Scientists have so far identified some of the trees in the forest. Some extinct trees Sigillaria and Cordaites were among some of the trees that were identified.
The painter worked with the researchers to give the impression of about 1,000 sq m of the forest distribution. The findings present rare look at how the region looked some centuries ago.
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Tags: academy of sciences, ash, beijing, canvas, centuries, co author, cordaites, forest distribution, hermann pfefferkorn, million years, national academy of sciences, old forest, pompeii, proceedings of the national academy, proceedings of the national academy of sciences, roman culture, roman history, sigillaria, time capsule, university of pennsylvania