Friday, March 21, 2014

This 3200 Year Old Tree Is So Huge It’s Never Been Captured In A Single Image. Until Now.

This 3200 Year Old Tree Is So Huge It’s Never Been Captured In A Single Image. Until Now.

It takes a special kind of tree to have a nickname.

sequoia-climbing-team

“The President” is one of those trees. The giant sequoia stands 247 feet tall, measures 45,000 cubic feet in volume, and is an estimated 3,200 years old.

seqoia

The trunk is 27 feet wide and the his mighty branches hold 2 billion needles, the most of any tree on the planet.

seqoia trunk

On top of that, he still adds one cubic meter of wood per year – making him one of the fastest growing trees in the world.

seqoia growing

Giant sequoias exist in only one place, where The President and smaller trees that make up his “House” and “Senate”, reside.

On the western slope of the Sierra Nevadas in California, at 5000-8000 ft above sea level.

General Sherman in winter

Until now, the tree had never been photographed in its entirety.

A team of photographers from National Geographic worked with scientists from the park to be the first.

seqoia pic

It took an intricate set of pulleys and levers to scale the tree, which some argue is the largest in the world (taking width into account).

seqoia pullys

After 32 days and stitching together 126 separate photos, we are left with this breathtaking portrait of The President.

NGS Picture ID:1507300

Absolutely incredible. To see how it was done, check out this video:


(source)

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