pvarney3
Big Creek Ferns
Ferns growing in between large boulders above Big Creek, Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This point is just after Midnight Hole Falls and before Mouse Creek Falls. I didn't realize how close Mouse Creek Falls was to this location, or I would have continued on. Instead, I planned on visiting Mouse Creek Falls the next morning on my way to Tricorner Knob 15.3 miles away on the AT. Scenes such as this show why Big Creek is such a great area for photography, especially in the spring: new growth on the ground and in the trees provides for a good contrast to the large, dark boulders strewn about.
My research at Georgia Tech has recently involved nonlinear dynamics. In the 1970's the newly discovered phenomena of chaos was needing a geometric foundation - Mandlebrot provided this with the theory of fractals. A fractal shape is one in which no matter what scale you look, the shape looks the same. Many fractals exist in nature (clouds, boulder fields, broccoli...), but one of the easiest to see is a fern.
Big Creek Ferns
Ferns growing in between large boulders above Big Creek, Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This point is just after Midnight Hole Falls and before Mouse Creek Falls. I didn't realize how close Mouse Creek Falls was to this location, or I would have continued on. Instead, I planned on visiting Mouse Creek Falls the next morning on my way to Tricorner Knob 15.3 miles away on the AT. Scenes such as this show why Big Creek is such a great area for photography, especially in the spring: new growth on the ground and in the trees provides for a good contrast to the large, dark boulders strewn about.
My research at Georgia Tech has recently involved nonlinear dynamics. In the 1970's the newly discovered phenomena of chaos was needing a geometric foundation - Mandlebrot provided this with the theory of fractals. A fractal shape is one in which no matter what scale you look, the shape looks the same. Many fractals exist in nature (clouds, boulder fields, broccoli...), but one of the easiest to see is a fern.