Fractals — Pretty Pictures or a Key to Understanding Earth Processes?

We illustrate two basically different definitions of fractals and their relevance to nature, especially to earth sciences. After this, two concepts that are able to explain the occurrence of fractals are discussed with respect to the use of fractals for elucidating the underlying processes: scale-invariant processes as a well-understood, hierarchical mechanism leading to static fractals, and self-organised criticality as a not completely understood phenomenon resulting in dynamic fractals.

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