My Story Part 200: I remember…

College… term papers… the card files… the stacks! The typewrites, and ribbons, and white out.
That is something that today’s college student knows nothing about. Hunting in these narrow aisles with glass floors.
 

So what brought this on?
 

I’m watching this video of driving through the Badlands and I thought, I wonder how the Badlands were formed?
 

In my college days that would have been an all day adventure, driving to the city library digging through the card files to find a list of books. In some libraries you wrote down the books you wanted and they got them for you. While you had to go into “the stacks” in the New Britain Library if I remember correctly had large glass windows with glass floors.

I asked Google that question and it lead me here… The NPS,

The buttes and spires of the park were formed through the geologic processes of deposition and erosion. The rocks of Badlands National Park were deposited as early as 75 million years ago and began eroding just 500,000 years ago. As erosion continues today, fossils buried in the rock slowly reveal themselves and park paleontologists study them to learn about ancient life in the area.

I remember my grandmother used to talk about hitching up the buggy to go up to Greenfield Hill to brother’s house and it was a couple of hour trip up there from Fairfield. Then she set with up to watch the men walk on the moon.
 

This is a knowledge revolution. It is just like my grandmother going from horse and buggy to watching men walk on the moon. We have gone from many hours and traveling to find an answer to that question to find the answer in micro seconds! Think on that for a second.

I asked my favorite AI, Perplexity AI this question…

Answer
The Badlands, particularly those in Badlands National Park in South Dakota, were formed through a combination of deposition and erosion processes over millions of years.
Deposition
Deposition is the process where material is added to a landform. In the case of the Badlands, this process began around 75 million years ago. The area that is now the Badlands was once covered by a shallow inland sea, which deposited layers of sediment over time. These sediments include various types of rock such as sandstones, siltstones, mudstones, claystones, limestones, volcanic ash, and shale. The deposition process continued until about 28 million years ago, creating a layered "layer cake" structure of rock formations. Key formations include:

•     Pierre Shale: The oldest layer, formed from marine sediments.
•     Yellow Mounds Formation: Created from the weathered Pierre Shale.
•     Chadron Formation: Formed from river floodplains during a subtropical climate.
•     Brule Formation: Deposited during a cooler, drier period, characterized by stream and floodplain deposits.
•     Sharps Formation: The youngest layer, formed from volcanic ash and sediment from river channels.

Erosion
Erosion began about 500,000 years ago, primarily driven by the Cheyenne and White Rivers. This process carved the landscape into the rugged terrain seen today, featuring narrow channels, canyons, and sharp peaks. The Badlands erode at a rapid rate of approximately one inch per year due to the softness of the sedimentary rocks and the area's climatic conditions, which include infrequent but heavy rainfall and minimal vegetation. The erosion process is ongoing and is expected to continue shaping the landscape.
Summary
The Badlands were formed through a long history of sediment deposition followed by significant erosion. The combination of these processes has created the distinctive and dramatic landscape characterized by steep slopes, deep gullies, and a high drainage density. The region's geological history is preserved in its layered rock formations, which provide a window into the Earth's past

I find that amazing! It even give you the references that it used. It blows me away!

But, but now watch this from CBS "60 Minutes"…



Think for a second, a quantum computer and AI… what will it create?

Think about the children who now sitting around listening to grandma and grandpa talk about “In my days we had to drive down to library to find a book in “The Stacks.” What world will they have when they turn 70?