A melting Alaskan glacier allowed researchers to look back in time after revealing a stunning forest that had been hidden under the thick ice for about 2,350 years.
The Mendenhall glacier snapped off the tops of the trees in its wake, but kept the rest frozen and immaculately preserved in gravel, Juneue Empire reported.
The glacier has been melting and the flowing water pushed around the gravel revealing the ancient trees.
Cathy Connor, University of Alaska Southeast Professor of Geology and Environmental Science Program Coordinator has been conducting extensive testing on the stumps. She believes the trees are of the Spruce variety, and range in age from 1,200 to 2,350 years old.
Many of the trees still display bark and roots, some even remain upright.
"There are a lot of them, and being in a growth position is exciting because we can see the outermost part of the tree and count back to see how old the tree was," Connor, told LiveScience's OurAmazingPlanet. "Mostly, people find chunks of wood helter-skelter, but to see these intact upright is kind of cool."
Connor hopes to find deep pockets of sediment beneath the ice, Juneue Empire reported.
"The tricky part is, as the ice advances in earlier time, it tends to scour away whatever was there before," she said. "So often you just get the latest chapter of the story, rather than come in at the introduction ... It's the luck of the Irish how you get a little bit of the story still remaining that hasn't gotten ravaged and sent down the Mendenhall (River) and out to Gastineau Channel. Most of the story is now in the sea sediments and a little hard to decipher."
The Eagle and Herbert glaciers are also shrinking and revealing tress that are around the same age as Mendenhall's forest.
"It's kind of cool that you have all these tree and sediment records that record what people have recorded in written and ... oral history," Connor said.
