tree of life

As often is found true, Kristy and I were watching National Geographic tonight and they had a great special on about the amazing-ness of Yosemite and the wonders therein. One of the things that struck us both was about the giant sequoias that grow there.

Firstly, they can be 3000 years old and 300 feet high. That in itself is incredible.

But then they were discussing the way that water travels up inside the tree for nourishment. Three hundred feet is a long way for water to travel . . . especially considering things like gravity and pressure and logic. However, what mr. narrator said was the the sequoia has the most efficient hydraulic system on earth . . . more efficient than anything man has been able to recreate.

So that's amazing.

But there's more.

Every day the average sequoia moves 1 ton of water through it's system . . . 1 ton. That's about 907 litres ( which is 907 liters spelled in American English . . . or 240 gallons).

One tree, one day, one ton.

There was also a piece of granite that fell from one of the mountain faces that was bigger than two football fields (approximately 1.89 Canadian Football League fields - they're 110 yards each) that caused a shockwave when it landed that snapped trees for about a half-a-mile. The air that rushed out from underneath on the leading edge of this shockwave was travelling at 300 mph.

There are a lot more stats in this post than I thought there would be . . . but it's all good.

Grace,

Des