Dendrochronological Studies of Wood at Historically Significant Sites of the Arctic

Abstract

Studies of wood in the Arctic were carried out on Vaygach Island, Hooker Island (Franz Joseph Land) and Novaya Zemlya. During the expedition “Arctic Floating University – 2013”, wood samples (cores) were taken from the buildings in key areas of the Arctic islands. Conforming to the wood samples we constructed tree-ring series and obtained floating chronologies, which were linked to dendroscales of standing trees with known year of each annual ring formation. Crossdating of floating chronologies was performed as follows. Dendroscale and floating chronology were overlapped and the synchronicity coefficient was calculated, then the dendroscale was shifted for a year and the coefficient was calculated again; the procedure was repeated until all possible options were checked. Visual similarity was assessed and the annual rings of floating chronology were dated based on the results with the maximum synchronicity coefficient, and the object was dated by the outermost ring. The year of formation of each annual ring of the buildings logs was determined by the dendrochronological method, resulting in assumption of the time of their construction, taking into account that it occurred a year or two after the tree felling. All the studied objects were located in areas with preserved history of their creation, which is highly important for confirming the objectivity of the obtained results. The dates of the buildings were determined as follows: Vaigach Island, 1945; Hooker Island (Franz Josef Land), 1936; the former bathhouse on Cape Zhelaniya (Novaya Zemlya), 1935; timber from the pillbox, 1938; the lighthouse, 1952; the frame on the coast of Ledyanaya Gavan’ Bay (Novaya Zemlya), 1938; a relatively modern building on the coast of the bay, 1991. Interesting to note that according to the obtained historical records the Lighthouse was built in year 1954, while dating by annual rings shows that the logs were in 1952 and they were probably imported in advance. The years for the construction research based on the use of the dendrochronological method opens up great opportunities at determining the age of unnamed wooden in the Arctic.