Description
According to the authors, instrumental records over the past century or so from Yellowstone National Park imply that both the intensity and interannual variability of summer precipitation in the Park are greater during warmer periods, which enhances the potential for severe short-term drought, major forest fires and storm-generated alluvial fan deposition. Based upon these observations, they analyzed the sedimentological and stratigraphic properties of several alluvial fans in the northeastern portion of the Park (~ 44.97°N, 110.08°W) to produce a history of regional forest fire activity throughout the Holocene. Their results indicated several episodes of major forest fire activity, including a major pulse of fire-related debris-flow between AD 1050 and 1200, which, in their words, "coincided with the height of the widely recognized Medieval Warm Period."