Why don't the trees in the lake fall over or rot?
In Kansas, in order to have a lake, you have to damn a river up and flood a valley (yes, we have valleys in this part of Kansas!) That means flooding trees and even houses and stuff. And even a bulldozer is at the bottom of our lake somewhere. Here is is, 60 years later, and the trees around the shallower edges are still standing. They’re dead, obviously, but why haven’t their bases long since rotted away and toppled them into the water?
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The roots are not exposed to the insects and bacteria that rot the upper parts of the trees. They retain their strength over amazingly long periods of time.
Hmmmm….but the upper parts of the trees that are exposed to the insects and bacteria are still there…? Some of those trees are REALLY tall, too. I don’t understand why the water doesn’t just rot the wood.
Could be the types of trees. Some rot faster than others, usually because of the content of certain oils in them. Birch bark, for instance, has been used for a long time as waterproofing layers in green roofs. The wood itself is pretty quick to degrade, though. Cedar is supposed to have a lot of oils, the fragrances of which repel bugs, hence cedar drawers.
But…60 years? And they don’t have any bark left. They’re smooth and grey and lifeless.
In the birch it’s the bark, in cedar it’s all through the wood. Plenty of trees are like that. Do you know what kind they are?
I really don’t know…..I would lean more toward oak or maple or elm, rather than cedar. I’ll have to get a picture sometime.
Wow, my guess is in their death they have been preserved and 60 years is more than enough to do it. Mummified tree?
Here’s another radical thought, maybe they’re alive and their roots and inner core are intact.
Seahenge is a wood circle that was buried in the sea for 4,000 years. Apparently “the circle was built in water-logged ground so it’s never dried out and the timbers have been preserved” – so this is similar to your trees which were alive when they got submerged
I don’t know you guys…it just defies common sense! But it happens in every man-made lake.
@mazingerz88 I don’t think they CAN be alive..they need to do their photosynthesis thing to actually live.
Nothin’ around to eat em I suppose… In the water insects wouldn’t be that able to get to them.
In a more natural lake… well they wouldn’t be there in the water in the first place. Unless there’s a beaver dam… what happens to trees that get submerged in a beaver dam? The beavers cut them down ?
Well, but they tower over the lake. Lots and lots of the trees are above the lake where instincts CAN get to them….
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