The world’s tallest tree makes humans look like “ants” and is set to enter the Guinness Book of World Records soon. Click on the image for a larger view.The Stratosphere Giant, the world's reigning tallest living tree, seems to have lost its title -- to not one but three contenders.
Like the 370-foot Giant, the three trees are coast redwoods. They were discovered this summer in Redwood National Park near Eureka by a team of California researchers who spend most of their free time bushwhacking through North Coast forests in search of taller and taller trees.
So far, the group has found about 135 redwoods that reach higher than 350 feet (106.7 meters), said team member Chris Atkins, the man credited with finding the Stratosphere Giant in August 2000 in nearby Humboldt Redwoods State Park.
The tallest of the three new finds, a redwood named Hyperion, measures 378.1 feet (115.2 meters). Next in line, Helios, stands at 376.3 feet (114.7 meters); Icarus, the third, reaches 371.2 feet (113.1 meters).
Atkins said Hyperion soon will be measured again with a tripod laser or with a "tape drop" -- in which someone climbs the tree and drops a measuring tape to the ground -- before its record-breaking status is confirmed.
If and when the measurement on Hyperion is confirmed, it is likely to supplant the Stratosphere Giant in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Link & Image: SFGate.com via Digg
Tags: World's Tallest Tree | Tree | Redwood | Stratosphere Giant | Hyperion | Guinness | World Record
Comments
I went on a trek for the LARGEST redwoods, and I had to get within a few hundred feet, or right next to the tree to be sure I had found the Titans. They are bigger, but the smaller ones are huge too:
Grove of Titans redwoods & photos
Atlas Grove is one other I would like to see, but Hyperion may be through more brush than I'd prefer to go through.