>Having taught dendrochronology, I would never
>want to deny solar cyclicity in the present environment, nor does Pittock
>deny the possibility of such, just uncritical acceptance of such claims.
Sunspot cycles influence some pattens in our environment, but other cyclic
patterns have entirely different scale. Two surprising examples:
A friend studying dendrochronology, very aware of the 11 year sunspot
cycles since he spent many hours each day looking through microscopes at
thin sections of fossil wood, also noticed over a period of about two
weeks, distinct width cycles in lines of evaporation of a puddle on his
front porch (in California). The ring widths showed periodicity close to 11
ring cycles! But they were day-night variations in evaporation rates,
about 11 rings per 24 hours, not 11 year periods.
A sedimentologist friend, observing flow rate pulses in water running down
a desert wash (visible also in water running down a sloping street), got
his family out for a project in a rainstorm, and documented intensity
cycles in runoff flow rates into a street drain. They found pulses and
cycles in the range of seconds and minutes.
Tree ring width cycles correlate with 11 year sunspot cycles. We are sure
of that. But other observed cycles, such as those in sedimentary laminae,
may be the results of flow pulses, or other sedimentary phenomena such as
those documented in the Colorado State University flume experiments on
stratification -- not sunspot cycles at all.
Karen