Growth and Decay: Natural Creation

My road trip to Yellowstone National Park and the surrounding area was eye opening. I had always know the power of emergence in creating natural wonders, but during my visit, I got to see the wonders first hand, on both a large and small scale.

Our first stop was Badlands National Park in South Dakota. I was impressed by the alien landscape created through water erosion. The whole park had a fractal quality where each ravine had its own set of carved ravines. Even the individual rocks themselves had been made porous by the wind.

The alien ravines of Badlands National Park. Note how the landscape repeats within itself.

Wind carved rocks of the Badlands. Reminiscent of structures found in cellular automata.

While the Badlands were created through erosion, the natural features at Yellowstone were grown. Because of the large amount of thermal activity in the region, bacteria thrived around springs and geysers. These bacteria respond to the environment and grow in formations akin to those found in cellular automata.

Bacterial growth in the hot springs of Yellowstone.

On a large scale, the bacterial structure emerges into something completely different, forming large steps across the landscape.

A larger structure emerges from the bacterial growth.

I find it fascinating that even though the natural features found in Badlands and Yellowstone National Park have similar properties, with both large scale and small scale structures, they each are formed with the opposite types of processes; Badlands with decay and Yellowstone with growth. Both resulted in equally fascinating landscapes and showcased the power of emergence in creation. In my next project, I hope to explore different ways of using growth and decay as tools for creation. If my designs are even fractionally as successful as the ones found in my trip, they will be wondrous.