Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Lichenometry

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Scientific Dating Methods

  • 379 Accesses

Definition

Lichenometry dates when a young rock surface was created by measuring the sizes of lichens whose growth rate is known.

Introduction

Lichens are an ancient type of symbiotic growth where algae create food for fungi, that provide shelter for the algae. Their great variety includes delicate foliose lichens growing on trees and rocks. Lichenometry uses only the crustose types (Figs. 1 and 2) that can adhere tightly to rock substrates for a 1,000 years. Figure 2 shows the type of block for dating a block. It has a range of thallus sizes, but only the largest lichen is measured, the assumption being that it most closely approximates the rockfall arrival time.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Edge of large Lecidea atrobrunnea in Sierra Nevada of California. Brown and tan are fungal cells; black apothecia reproductive cells contain hidden white spore cases; underlying black algae mat is visible along the right edge

Full size image

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Bibliography

  • Beschel, R. E., 1950. Flechten aus Altersmaastab rezenter, moränen (Lichens as a yardstick of age of late-glacial moraines). Zeitschrift für Gletscherkunde und Glazialgeologie, 1, 152–161.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beschel, R. E., 1957. A project to use lichens as indicators of climate and time. Arctic, 10, 60.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beschel, R. E., 1959. Lichenometrical studies in West Greenland. Arctic, 11, 254.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biasi, G. P., and Weldon, R. J., 2009. San Andreas fault rupture scenarios from multiple paleoseismic record; string pearls. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 99, 472–498.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bradwell, T., 2010. Studies on the growth of Rhizocarpon geographicum in NW Scotland, and some implications for lichenometry. Geografiska Annaler, 92A(1), 41–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bull, W. B., 1996a. Prehistorical earthquakes on the Alpine fault, New Zealand. Journal of Geophysical Research, Solid Earth Special Section, Paleoseismology, 101(B3), 6037–6050.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bull, W. B., 1996b. Dating San Andreas fault earthquakes with lichenometry. Geology, 24, 111–114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bull, W. B., 2003. Lichenometry dating of coseismic changes to a New Zealand landslide complex. Annals of Geophysics, 46, 1155–1167.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bull, W. B., 2007. Tectonic Geomorphology of Mountains, A New Approach to Paleoseismology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, p. 320.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bull, W. B., and Brandon, M. T., 1998. Lichen dating of earthquake-generated regional rockfall events, Southern Alps, New Zealand. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 110, 60–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bull, W. B., Schlyter, P., and Brogaard, S., 1995. Lichenometric analysis of the Kärkerieppe slush-avalanche fan, Kärkevagge, Sweden. Geografiska Annaler, 77A, 231–240.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ellsworth, W. L., 1990. Earthquake history, 1769–1989. In Wallace, R. E., (ed.), The San Andreas Fault System. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1515, pp. 153–187.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huber, N. K., Phillips, W. M., and Bull, W. B., 2002. The Slide, Yosemite National Park, CA, Yosemite Association. Yosemite, 64(3), 2–4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Innes, J. L., 1985. Lichenometry. Progress in Physical Geography, 9, 187–254.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Locke, W. W. III., Andrews, J. T., and Webber, P. J., 1979. A Manual for Lichenometry. British Geomorphological Research Group Technical Bulletin 26, 47pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loso, M. G., and Doak, D. F., 2006. The biology behind lichenometric dating curves. Oecologia, 147, 223–229.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Matthews, J. A., and Trenbirth, H. E., 2011. Growth rate of a very large crustose lichen (Rhizocarpon subgenus) and its implications for lichenometry. Geografiska Annaler, 93, 27–39.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McGlone, M. S., 1979. The Polynesian settlement of New Zealand in relation to environmental and biotic changes. In Rudge, M. R., (ed.), Moas, Mammals, and Climate in the Ecological History of New Zealand. New Zealand Journal of Ecology, 12, 15–129.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, G. H., et al., 2012. Abrupt onset of the Little Ice Age triggered by volcanism and sustained by sea-ice/ocean feedbacks. Geophysical Research Letters, doi:10.1029/2011GL050168.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smol, J. P., and Douglas, M. S. V., 2007. Crossing the final ecological threshold in high Arctic ponds. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104, 12395–12397.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Toppozada, T. R., and Borchardt, G., 1998. Re-evaluation of the 1836 “Hayward Fault” and the 1838 San Andreas Fault Earthquakes. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 88(1), 140–159.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, 1040 E. 4th St, 85721, Tucson, AZ, USA

    William B. Bull

Authors
  1. William B. Bull
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to William B. Bull .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geography and Earth Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

    W. Jack Rink

  2. Department of Medical Physics and Applied Radiation Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

    Jeroen Thompson

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

About this entry

Cite this entry

Bull, W.B. (2013). Lichenometry. In: Rink, W., Thompson, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Scientific Dating Methods. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6326-5_178-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6326-5_178-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-007-6326-5

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Earth and Environm. ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation