Tree ring width measurements from the Log Cabin Mine Road site near Tioga Pass, California, provide a 464-year climate proxy record. The data, archived by NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information, covers the period from 450 to 14 years before the present era. This record was published as part of the International Tree-Ring Data Bank in 1964.
Use Cases
- Reconstruct annual temperature or precipitation anomalies for the Sierra Nevada region using the tree ring width time-series.
- Calibrate and validate climate models for the last millennium by comparing simulated data with this proxy record.
- Analyze the frequency of extreme growth years (narrow or wide rings) to identify past drought or favorable climate periods.
- Cross-date this chronology (ITRDB CA503) with other California tree ring datasets to build a longer, more robust regional master chronology.
Strengths
- Provides a continuous, annually resolved climate proxy for 464 years.
- Part of the authoritative International Tree-Ring Data Bank (ITRDB) collection curated by NOAA NCEI.
- Data includes precise geographic location (Tioga Pass, California) for spatial analysis.
Limitations
- Temporal coverage ends 14 years BP, making it less directly applicable for studying the most recent centuries.
- The single-site nature limits spatial representativeness for the broader California region.
- The original publication date of 1964 suggests older measurement and standardization methods.
Provenance
- Source
- NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) World Data Service for Paleoclimatology.
- Collection Method
- Tree core samples analyzed for ring width, standardized into a chronology.
- Time Range
- 450 to -14 calendar years BP (Before Present, where present=1950).
- Freshness
- null
- Geography
- Log Cabin Mine Road, Tioga Pass, California, United States.