Grand Canyon, USA: Lumping and Splitting to Make Sense of a (Somewhat) Predictable World

Geology logline: The exposures of the Grand Canyon allow conceptual lumping and splitting of the space (rocks units) and time (events); different hypotheses for canyon formation illustrate different conceptual temporal lumping and splitting of the erosional events. Cognitive science logline: Predictability underlies two important geological reasoning processes: (1) Presence versus absence and (2) Lumping versus splitting.Standing on the rim of the canyon, you viscerally experience the name-it feels big in a way that pictures do not capture.The immensity of absence, which is the Grand Canyon, is conveyed across all of the senses.For instance, the soundscape of the rim is not silence; you can hear the wind.Yet the sound quality is unfamiliar; absent are the common echoes from nearby surfaces.The space of the canyon is so immense that echoes disappear.