ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.—New research by a University of Arizona team suggests that “megadroughts” may be a recurring feature of the region’s climate.
The Albuquerque Journal reports ( ) that the study provides the most detailed record of climate in the San Juan and Rio Grande basins—the river basins that provide much of New Mexico’s water supply—over the last 2,000 years.
The study, being published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, comes from a grove of bristlecone pine found in the mountains near Summitville, Colo.
The study also found that tree rings from the headwaters of the Rio Grande show a 50-year drought from 122 to 172 AD.
Scientists have long known about similar drought a thousand years later but it was never clear whether that drought was unique.
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Information from: Albuquerque Journal,
