Tree As Tall As Statue of Liberty Discovered In World's Deepest Canyon

An enormous tree has been discovered inside the deepest canyon in the world. It is thought to be the tallest tree in Asia, as well as the second-tallest tree on Earth.

The cypress tree was discovered in the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon nature reserve in Bome County, Nyingchi City, in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China, by a Peking University research team.

The tree was found to stand 335 feet tall, according to a statement from Peking University, just taller than the 305-foot Statue of Liberty. Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon is considered the deepest canyon on land in the world, reaching an average depth of around 16,000 feet and a maximum depth of 19,714 feet.

According to the statement, the tree is a Himalayan cypress (Cupressus torulosa), while other reports in Chinese state media cite the tree as being a Tibetan cypress (Cupressus gigantea).

The tree was discovered using a drone carrying a lidar sensor, another Peking University statement explained. Lidar is similar to sonar and echolocation, using laser light instead of sound to map out surroundings. Using the data gathered by the lidar, researchers from Peking University, the Xizijiang Conservation Center and the Shan Shui Conservation Center created a 3D model of the huge tree, which was confirmed as being the largest tree in Asia after a field survey.

This tree has broken previous records set by the same team for the tallest tree in China: In April last year, they discovered a 252-foot tree in Medog County, while only a month later, they found a 272-foot-tall fir tree in southwest China.

There are also a huge number of massive trees in this area, with 25 over 295 feet having been discovered near the record-breaking tree. Himalayan and Tibetan cypresses are rare in the wild, with only a few living in the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon National Nature Reserve. They are a first-class protected plant species in China.

The tallest tree in the world can be found in Redwood National Park in California, measuring a staggering 381 feet. This coastal redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), first found in 2006, is thought to be between 600 and 800 years old, and is nicknamed Hyperion.

With this newly discovered tree filling the second-tallest spot, the third-tallest tree is a 330-foot mountain ash in Australia, the fourth is a 327-foot Coast Douglas fir in Oregon, and the fifth is Menara, a 323.3-foot yellow meranti found in Malaysia.

The researchers hope to monitor the cypress trees in the area in the long term, studying their distribution density, population, and age. They also hope to explore further into the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon, to investigate the biodiversity and trees that remain unstudied.

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