Talk:Wisconsin glaciation
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[edit] Move to 'Ice Age'?
Given the number of geographically-specific names (Wisconsinian and Vistula can be added to the list in the article), would it make sense to move the article to Ice Age or The Ice Age? 68.81.231.127 19:01, 21 Jan 2005 (UTC)
- The more general article at Ice age explains that the topic of this article, under its various local designations— none of them fully satisfactory overall— is merely the most recent glacial event. Some writers prefer to call it the Wisconsinian Glaciation, emphasizing, as the stages of geologic time like the Cretaceous "Maastrichtian" do, that "Wisconsin" is simply a place where the episode was recognized. The "Würmian Glaciation" is also a familiar term in English-language discourse, though not Wikipedian, apparently (red-linked). (Wetman 08:54, 28 September 2005 (UTC))
- Würm glaciation seems to be more common, and redirects to this article. (SEWilco 14:48, 28 September 2005 (UTC))
[edit] "BC" or "BP"?
The present article is somewhat inconsistently expressed in years Before Christ. Years Before Present, with a "Present" permanently fixed at 1950, reflects the best normal practice, however. (Wetman 08:54, 28 September 2005 (UTC))
- Who says 1950 is the present? I assumed ybp meant 2000, or 2005, or 2006, and was worried what this article would look like in 10 or 20 years, then thought about the cleanup issues created by using such a contrived notation, but nevermind. Xaxafrad 01:33, 9 December 2006 (UTC)
- Read my lips: a "Present" permanently fixed at 1950, reflects the best normal practice. Any high school text will give you a first clue. --Wetman 05:39, 9 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Inconsistent timeline?
Um, how is it that the "general glacial advance began about 70,000 BC" but "The Tahoe reached its maximum extent perhaps about 70,000 years ago" [i.e., 68,000 BC] Did those early glaciers really gallop?
[edit] Conflict with other data?
I found this page while looking for more info on a passing comment by Richard Dawkins (The Ancestor's Tale, pg 405): “... guessing that our ancestors, but not the chimpanzees’, passed through a genetic bottleneck not very long ago. The population was reduced to a small number, came close to going extinct, but just pulled through. There is evidence of a fierce bottleneck - perhaps down to a population of 15,000 some 70,000 years ago, caused by a six-year ‘volcanic winter’ followed by a thousand-year ice age. Like the children of Noah in the myth, we are all descended from this small population, and that is why we are so genetically uniform. Similar evidence, of even greater genetic uniformity, suggests that cheetahs passed through an even narrower bottleneck more recently, around the end of the last Ice Age.” Dawkins does not provide footnotes or endnotes, so I can't provide his sources, but the apparent contradiction with Wiki's summary is striking.
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- You'll be interested to read Toba eruption and Volcanic winter. The Toba eruption seems like quite a specific culprit for our Genetic bottleneck: Toba catastrophe theory gives the details. --Wetman 12:22, 26 November 2005 (UTC)
[edit] other places
There is nothing in this article on
(1) The quite different character of the North American Cordellian
Ice Sheeet.
(2) Patagonian Ice Sheet
(3) New Zealand Glaciers
(4) ... and other places that maybe matter less.
I'm not the one to attempt this summary. 134.121.64.253 02:11, 14 January 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Contradiction
The intro says, "The general glacial advance ... reached its maximum extent about 18,000 BCE." Later the article says "The Tioga was the least severe ... of the Wisconsinan group and reached its greatest advance 20,000 years ago". If the Tioga was the least severe one would expect the maximum for the whole period would have been in the Tahoe or Tenaya periods more than 30,000 years ago. Either some change or some explanation required.
Secondly, the first sentence says, "The Wisconsin ... and Würm glaciation ... are the most recent glaciations ...". If (as it seems to me) this is one glaciation with many names (and several periods), shouldn't it read, "... is the most recent glaciation ...". Otherwise, if it is many glaciations, shouldn't it read, "The Wisconsin ... and Würm glaciations ..."? Nurg 03:16, 5 November 2006 (UTC)
