An adorable fractal analysis

Geoscientist Brian Romans posted this very real scientific abstract at his blog, Clastic Detritus. It's from a collection of papers that were presented at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in 1991.

Fractal analysis is a way of studying shapes (or patterns in data) that aren't easily described by simple geometry. It's been used to study things like the growth of trees and the spread of forest fires. At the time this paper was written, Romans says, fractal analysis was just becoming a really big deal in science. It's possible that this paper was meant to demonstrate a useful new concept, or poke fun at an over-reliance on a trendy tool.