spiral pattern bark splits on multiple trees

[Joster19]

A friend of mine has this spiral pattern both on to Rocky mountain. Ash and also a sweet gum (seems more columnar in form/variety)
I have researched around a little bit but haven't found similar situations- any ideas the source of these issues?

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[Neill]

That does look weird. I’d guess planting damage.

 

[ATH]

Is sweet gum similar size/age? I'm guessing some kind of wind event that twisted the trees a couple of years ago - especially since its with 2 trees in same area. Any other small trees on immediately adjacent parcels to compare? Bigger trees may not have suffered the same fate.

 

[evo]

Is sweet gum similar size/age? I'm guessing some kind of wind event that twisted the trees a couple of years ago - especially since its with 2 trees in same area. Any other small trees on immediately adjacent parcels to compare? Bigger trees may not have suffered the same fate.

Or untwisted the spiral grain.. I’ve seen this with girdling roots or basal damage.

 

[Tom Dunlap]

Spiral growth is something that I’ve read a little about but can’t recall much

More common in some species

The tree in the pic looks like a simple root. Excavation would tell you a lot

 

[southsoundtree]

At Coldwater Lake, created by Mt St Helens' eruption, i see a tree with a big missing section lying/ cavity on the beach. Might have lived on after the blast for some time.

Straight grain inside, outer 4" was strongly spiral- grained.

I have/ had a picture somewhere.

 

[Joster19]

Thanks for the responses, I was thinking it's something related to the roots- I didn't notice any bigger trees nearby with similar issues. Tom, I think I recall my grandparents having a large mountain Ash with a spiral growth pattern, I also see it a lot in crimson King maple- seems reasonable to be more common in some species. South sound, that's a pretty wild discovery, would love to see the pic! I live in Iowa so Guess I will Remove volcanic eruptions from the list of potential reasons [emoji12] but we do get our twisters- 49 in both April and May this year, set a new record

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