What causes this?

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Brushpile

Nose to the grindstone
Joined
Mar 3, 2015
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Location
TN
This is a tree on top of the mountain here. Was it causes by someone leaning the rock against the tree years ago, or did the tree growing beside it force the stone up?108583519.jpeg
 
My guess is something put that rock there after it was established. I the tree grew from a sapling at the edge of the tree I would expect to see the trunk less straight and crooked around the edge of the rock. Jus my guess.
 
My guess is something put that rock there after it was established. I the tree grew from a sapling at the edge of the tree I would expect to see the trunk less straight and crooked around the edge of the rock. Just my guess.

I think so too.

Trees don't grow 'up', they elongate.

If you drive a nail into a tree trunk 4ft. high.......... and check it fifty years later...............the tree will be much taller but the nail will still be at 4ft. height.(ignoring such things as erosion, etc.)
 
Tennessee isn't exactly known for glacier flow so not sure how the rock got there on its own.
Using the SWAG method, perhaps a mature tree toppled and the root ball under the rock flipped it up. A sapling took root in the depression and grew as the root ball rotted away.
Curious what the surrounding ground looks like.
 
My guess is something put that rock there after it was established. I the tree grew from a sapling at the edge of the tree I would expect to see the trunk less straight and crooked around the edge of the rock. Jus my guess.
Absolutely this. Expanding roots will swell and cause fracture in rock, or in a city sidewalks, but they won't lift much over that. As large as the rock is, I would bet the tree was pretty good sized. I couldn't hazard a guess as to the age of the tree, but I would guess the trunk was close to 2/3 of what it is now when the rock was moved to it.
 
I suspect the rock's fixed in the ground and the tree grew next to it, only making contact with it at the point it got that fat a few decades or so ago.

A picture of the rock's base'd most likely tell the story.

Interesting pic, thanks for posting.

jomoco
 
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