General Sherman Tree - Sequoia National Park, California, USA
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netdust
N 36° 34.895 W 118° 45.090
11S E 343301 N 4049884
"General Sherman Tree, the largest living thing"
Waymark Code: WMNZGC
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 05/29/2015
Views: 11
"Opposite the area, in a park-like clearing, is the GENERAL SHERMAN TREE, the largest living thing. It was called the Karl Marx Tree by the Kaweah Colonists. The name was changed after James Wolverton, trapper and hunter, asserted he had discovered it in 1879, several years before the advent of the colonists. The height of the Sherman Tree, above the mean base, is 272.4 feet; its base circumference is 101.6 feet. Its age is estimated at between 3,000 and 4,000 years." - California, a Guide to the Golden State
Well, the tree is still there. And it is still huge. Its height as it can be found today is 274.9 ft. We could not determine how much of the difference is due to measurement uncertainties and how much the tree has actually grown in the meantime.
Yet, the age of General Sherman is today estimated to be about 2,300–2,700 years, less than in the guide. As we understand the difference is due to difficulties to estimate the age of a living tree without cutting it, the techniques to do so have changed over time.
In 1978 and 2006, large branches of the Sherman tree came down, changing the appearance of the tree. The status as " largest known living single stem tree on earth" was not changed by this, as only trunk volume is taken into account for this. Although the above status seems much more cautiously formulated, we think it could still well be interpreted as "the largest living thing".
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