![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20091025071924im_/http://nsf.gov/images/x.gif) Press Release 05-099 Trace Gold Reveals Tree's Past
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June 14, 2005
Using a new method to detect trace elements in tree rings, researchers at Cornell University and Penn State noticed elevated amounts of gold in specific rings and correlated several of the bands to a number of volcanic eruptions over the past 500 years.
Penn State nuclear engineer Kenan Unlu, Cornell tree-ring expert Peter Kuniholm and their colleagues believe they can use the technique not only to confirm known eruptions and other phenomena, but also to detect those events when other climatic and geologic records are missing.
Full details are available in a Penn State press release: http://live.psu.edu/story/12203
-NSF-
NSF Award: SBR-9905389 The Prehistory of the Eastern Mediterranean: Dendochronological, Radiocarbon and Dendrochemical Approaches
![](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20091025071924im_/http://nsf.gov/images/bluefadesm.jpg)
Media Contacts
Joshua A. Chamot, NSF (703) 292-8070 jchamot@nsf.gov
A'ndrea Elyse Messer, Pennsylvania State University (814) 865-9481 aem1@psu.edu
Program Contacts
John E. Yellen, NSF (703) 292-8759 jyellen@nsf.gov
Principal Investigators
Peter Ian Kuniholm, Cornell University (607) 255-8650 pik3@cornell.edu
Co-Investigators
Kenan Unlu, Pennsylvania State University (814) 865-6351 k-unlu@psu.edu
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