Free Republic

Thanks to Clive Cussler's book Piranha, a long forgotten chapter of human history has been found again. The story starts off in 1902 in Martinique in the town of St Pierre where the deadliest eruption in history took place.  The eruption of Mt Pelee was the worst volcanic eruption in history that resulted in tremendous casualties. The eruption killed far more people than did Vesuvius in the first century AD when it erupted burying the towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii.  St Pierre in Martinique was a town of 30,000, considered the Paris of the Caribbean. It was also a...

The width and color of tree rings provides an extraordinary glimpse into a tree's history. (Dmitr1ch/Shutterstock) How extreme weather leaves a lasting mark on trees and shrubs POZNAŃ, Poland — In the Arctic’s harsh borderlands, where trees wage a constant battle for survival, an international research team has discovered that extreme cold leaves lasting fingerprints in wood. These “blue rings,” visible only under a microscope, reveal centuries-old stories of climate disasters that once brought summer temperatures plunging to near-freezing. The study, published in Frontiers in Plant Science, examined pine trees and juniper shrubs in the Arctic. The research team ventured...