They only root to 12 to 14 feet deep even at maturity.
The popular “shallow root” thing is mostly coming from outreach type pages that compress this into: roots ~14 ft deep and 60–80 ft out laterally. That’s “shallow” relative to a 100-meter tree, but in absolute terms it’s a very large, deep root plate compared to most trees. And 14 feet isn’t even particularly big. I’ve stood in fallen over old growth root clumps at were easily 20.
Its like saying a train has a small engine compared to a geo metro, because of the size of the engine relative to the vehicle.
The popular “shallow root” thing is mostly coming from outreach type pages that compress this into: roots ~14 ft deep and 60–80 ft out laterally. That’s “shallow” relative to a 100-meter tree, but in absolute terms it’s a very large, deep root plate compared to most trees. And 14 feet isn’t even particularly big. I’ve stood in fallen over old growth root clumps at were easily 20.
Its like saying a train has a small engine compared to a geo metro, because of the size of the engine relative to the vehicle.