What a Hurricane Taught Me About Change in the Landscape

Can we rewind history and reconstruct the series of events that shaped major landscapes such as the Grand Canyon? Can we identify the large scale events that defined the major shape of landforms, and then drill down from there to the smaller event, to the thousand year storms, to the hundred year storms. To the present processes that are changing the landscape on a small scale today. Is it possible to understand the grand canyon as largely formed during the flood of Noah as described in the bible? One major event that surpasses the scale of anything seen before or since? An event that slices through the landscape that was before; eroding the landscape that then existed; depositing it largely in its current form. To be shaped by subsequent events yes, but understood in terms of the scale of the events and not purely adding time?

Time is not enough! Modeling these actions of erosion and deposition in geology according to the FRACTAL PARADIGM, where we consider the scale of the event gives us a new understanding and insight in interpreting the origins and history of landscapes around the world. In August of 2004, Hurricane Charley struck the gulf coast of Florida: ONE EVENT, ONE DAY, hurricane charley sliced and island in half. ONE EVENT, ONE DAY moved vast quantities of sand compared to the combined effects of the 20 years since August 13, 2004.

When we look at the landscapes of the Grand Canyon for example, we need to re-examine the landscape through the understanding that the order of magnitude of events is more significant than the duration of the event. Thinking in terms of time, if we add an infinite amount of time, the day to day actions of nature would never get us to this pattern that we see on North Captiva Island. It took a large-scale event (a category 4 hurricane) to overcome the day to day patterns, to overcome the shoreline that is naturally developing here, to wash out a channel and deposit the sand behind.

FractalWoman - Principle of Incommensurability - Website Article
https://fractalwoman.com/2022/04/04/the-principle-of-incommensurability/

FractalWoman - Principle of Incommensurability - YouTube Video
https://youtu.be/a3A1pqCVR_I?si=TLmIlWou_uwvimIU

Tool used to build the Fractal Model animation:
FractalWoman’s Fractal Colour Therapy
https://fractalwoman.com/theOMparticle_NFT/fractal-colour-therapy/

Rapidian Dam Breach Video Credit: Austin LaFollette, used with permission.