A Feat Of Erosion
Written by Roel van der Meulen (
[email protected]) on November 4 1995. Credits to Marc Kippen (
[email protected]) for doing the research for me, and for giving me quotable material.
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Up in the White Mountains, New Hampshire, USA, Earth, natural erosion has produced one of those amazing wonders of nature, a rock formation in which you can clearly see the face of an old man [1]. However, it doesn't look as good as it used to; the face is degrading, possibly because it's a main tourist attraction, but mostly because it's erosion we're dealing with here anyway.
One man [2] has taken it upon himself to be the caretaker of the rock formation for the past 30 years or so. Every summer he ritually climbs up the mountain and repairs what was damaged during the past winter. The poor man doesn't realise he's fighting a losing battle, given the difference between geologic and human time-scales.
So for man to be able to witness the sculptures of erosion, erosion has to be violated. Who knows what we're missing this way. No "old Gnarf in the mountain" for us I'm afraid, sorry.