Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Geology/Archive 1

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Archive 1

Contents

Banners

Should we make it explicit under Open tasks and guidelines that we will not be adding WikiProject Geology banners to talk pages where WikiProject Volcanoes or WikiProject Rocks and minerals (or even WikiProject Mountains) banners are more appropriate? --Bejnar 20:18, 29 April 2007 (UTC)

I would think no, although I do acknowledge the point of the question. My specific objection would be to the ambiguity of the phrase "more appropriate". Certainly, if an existing project has already tagged the article, and the entire content of that article relates to the scope of that given project, then certainly it would be redundant to place the banner. If the content only partially related to the express or implicit scope of another project, however, and the remaining content related to geology in some other way, then I think it would be perfectly appropriate for this project to tag the article, based on the content which falls under this project but apparently no other project. I hope that the above answer makes at least a little sense to anyone who might read it. Sorry, but it is getting a bit late here. John Carter 02:48, 30 April 2007 (UTC)
Like John, I would disagree, because in some cases there may be a blury line between two areas and an article may be equally tagged by both projects. I do agree, wherever the topic of the existing tag prevails, your suggestion makes sense. Solarapex 01:03, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

Geology of Minnesota

The Geology of Minnesota article is up for review at Scientific peer review. Any comments would be welcome! -Ravedave 05:54, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Geologic timescale Project

Does anyone mind to take Wikipedia:WikiProject Geologic timescale under the roof of this project? It seems to be inactive. Solarapex 13:13, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

I think that is a good idea. --mav 20:50, 2 May 2007 (UTC)
Good idea. --Bejnar 15:04, 3 May 2007 (UTC)
Fully agree --Zamphuor 15:13, 3 May 2007 (UTC)


As a part of migration to this project I would like to suggest a couple of things:

  • Bring/move the discussions under Wikipedia:WikiProject Geology/Geologic timescale and list it as a "department" of this project.
  • to standardize infoboxes. I found the existing ones are not easy to navigate. Also, check an example from the Russian Wikipedia Pterodactyloidea (russian).
  • For divisions of the geologic timescale it would be useful to list impact events.

Solarapex 04:32, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

I would find it very useful if dates for the following were available: North American Land Mammal Age, European Mammal Neogene, Marine isotopic stage. I have been, more or less successfully, figuring these out for the odd paleontology article, so some material is already here. If someone whips up a stub, I'll be more than happy to contribute (I'm one of the folks more concerned with the "Quaternary dirt on top of the REAL stuff", as a geologist buddy of ine put it ;-) ) Dysmorodrepanis 17:08, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

Geological advice needed

I would like to ask for advice with a discussion we are having at List of extinct animals of Europe. My point is that we should not classify extinct animals with political barriers, as it was the case with this article, see section of the same article: extinct animals of dependent territories of European countries . I believe that there were using the political definition of Europe. My question is, in which way could we classify extinct animals (fossils) with geological boundaries. Europe, Asia, Africa...? or Eurasia, America, Antartica...? I would appreciate any advice you could give us. Francisco Valverde 11:23, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

Do you mean that they are trying to include Asia Minor in Europe? The geographic definition of Europe is the Urals to the east and the waterways, Black Sea, Aegean, Mediterranean, Atlantic to the south. But since the Urals are a poor biological barrier wouldn't it be better to talk about Eurasian extinctions instead? --Bejnar 16:11, 12 May 2007 (UTC)
Well, I did propose a merge with List of extinct animals of Asia and rename it as List of extinct animals of Eurasia but up to the moment it did hasn't picked up any support. There are cases in the European article that include extinct animals of Cyprus and although Cyprus is considered to be a European country, geographically is Asia. --Francisco Valverde 11:16, 13 May 2007 (UTC)

Before Present

Could other people please look at Before Present (BP), i.e. the unit of time meaning years before 1950. Another user keeps suggesting that BP is intimately linked to radiocarbon. I have been trying to clarify that BP simply means years before 1950 regardless of the method of measurment, i.e. whether those are radiocarbon years, calendar years, ice core layers, etc. However I've been reverted several times and am tired of it now. Dragons flight 00:30, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

Quick review

Could someone with some expertise please look over Mackinac Island#Geology? This was suggested on its current FAC. The source used for it is generally accurate, but not always scientific. Geology is not my strong point, so while it all may look good to me, that does not mean it is. Mr.Z-mantalk¢ 23:18, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

I added some info - but wikireferences are not my strong point, and I screwed it up - assistance appreciated! Cheers Geologyguy 23:55, 18 May 2007 (UTC)
It looks great - Thanks! I took care of the ref, the cite template didn't work without the "title" parameter defined, but it should be fine now. Mr.Z-mantalk¢ 00:00, 19 May 2007 (UTC)

Volcanic mountains

I noticed that we do not have anything called Volcanic mountains, and created appropriate redirects. It seems to me that most people assume that 'volcanoes' means recently active volcanoes, and looking at List of volcanoes would expect to find those. I thought that long-extinct volcanoes should be called only 'volcanic mountains' and that we should split these out. The way, the truth, and the light 07:34, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

You might get more response asking this at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject_Volcanoes. Anyway, common notions aside, "volcano" does not mean "active volcano", and I hope any readers whose expectations were different treat this realisation as yet another gift of knowledge from Wikipedia. Do you believe this will make it harder for readers to find the information they want? That's the only thing that would concern me here. -- Avenue 08:56, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
I definitely think it would be more helpful to distinguish. Yes, extinct volcanoes are technically 'volcanoes', but I expect most people would not call them such. Most information of volcanoes, including our article Volcano, is largely about volcanic activity. It would be useful to have a seperate article at Volcanic mountain for the geology of volcanic formations, wouldn't it? The way, the truth, and the light 09:12, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
I posted a note at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject_Volcanoes as well as at Talk:Volcano. The way, the truth, and the light 09:14, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
This is a good catch. Solarapex 15:12, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
I agree it's useful to redirect volcanic mountain somewhere, although stratovolcano might be a better choice than volcano. But I don't agree with turning it into an article on the geology of volcanic formations in general, because many volcanic landforms are not mountains. Lake Taupo and the Columbia River Plateau come to mind, along with many smaller volcanoes. -- Avenue 16:40, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
I don't think there is anything to split. The term "volcanic mountain" is almost never used in any published book or reference about volcanoes. Checking Google, the first hits for "volcanic mountain" all refer to active, conical volcanoes, and not extinct ones, so we would be inventing a neologism by having an article by that title with content about extinct volcanoes. There is also the issue of the ill-defined term "extinct". Many volcanoes which the general public might call "extinct" are actually referred to by volcanologists as "potentially active" or even "active", because most people simply don't know any better, and grossly underestimate current and future volcanic hazards. I agree with Avenue's earlier comment, that any knowledge Wikipedia can provide by calling them "volcanoes" and dispelling these popular misconceptions is a good thing. Once a volcano, always a volcano, even if inactive or dormant or supposedly extinct.
There is, however, such a thing as a "volcanic peak" which was never actually a "volcano". These are formed by deep erosion of a large volcanic edifice, thus leaving topographically prominent peaks which are made of volcanic rock, but which were never actual volcanoes. An excellent example of such a volcanic peak is Little Tahoma, the high satellite peak of Mount Rainier. LT is an erosional remnant of a formerly much-higher Mount Rainier. It is formed entirely of volcanic rock, and is nicely pointed and conical, yet it is not a volcano per se because lava never erupted from it. All of its lava erupted from the summit crater of Rainier far above, then flowed down the slopes and hardened to form the rock of LT. Later, glaciers eroded away much of this hardened lava, leaving LT standing as a glacial horn. Such erosional volcanic peaks, especially on a smaller scale than LT, are common throughout the world. In any case, I've never heard or read of such peaks being referred to as "volcanic mountains", only as volcanic peaks or sometimes (less commonly) volcanic remnants.
However, I don't think we need an article titled "volcanic peak" either, because although this term is commonly used in volcanology literature, it is mostly used to refer to actual volcanoes and not to distinguish only the erosional volcanic peaks I just mentioned. --Seattle Skier (talk) 17:13, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
Strong agreement with Seattle Skier. Cheers Geologyguy 17:19, 20 May 2007 (UTC)
Yes, I agree with Avenue and Seattle Skier too. Eve 19:58, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

'Volcanic mountain' is hardly a neologism, it's the term anyone would use to describe a mountain of volcanic origin. My proposal is that there by an article on volcanic geology, whatever it's called, distinct from volcano which essentially covers volcanic activity. The way, the truth, and the light 04:15, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Oh, I see. Earlier above, it seemed you wanted to refer only to extinct volcanoes as volcanic mountains. But you're thinking about an article about volcanic landforms in general? That might be useful, and fun to write. However, most of that is already covered in the "Volcanic features" section of Volcano, and additional expansion could be added there. Incidentally, it really is true that the term "volcanic mountain" is not commonly used in most books or published geology papers (see the exception below). Also, I live in a city flanked by an entire range of volcanoes (I can see two major stratovolcanoes from my deck, Mount Rainier and Glacier Peak), and I rarely hear anyone refer to them as "volcanic mountains". I'm not sure where you're from, so maybe this has to do with differences in English dialects in various parts of the world, and perhaps "volcanic mountains" is commonly used elsewhere.
By the way, there is an excellent book called Volcanoes as Landscape Forms, written in 1944 by New Zealand geologist C. A. Cotton, and still a classic work which has never been superseded. It is one of the only books to concentrate on volcanoes as geological forms and as mountains, and it does actually use the term "volcanic mountains" several times. So I shouldn't discount the use of that term entirely, if some book does use it. Anyway, feel free to start a new article if you wish, but I still think it would be best to cover the material by expanding the "Volcanic features" section of Volcano. --Seattle Skier (talk) 07:03, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
I agree with Seattle Skier. I don't see a need for the term volcanic mountain, nor an article. I agree with expanding the "Volcanic features" section, if it is not clear. --Bejnar 18:15, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens FAR

1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens has been nominated for a featured article review. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. Please leave your comments and help us to return the article to featured quality. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, articles are moved onto the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article from featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Reviewers' concerns are here. LuciferMorgan 13:18, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Roland Bird

Anyone know anything of this American Palaoentologist? Enlil Ninlil 19:13, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Physiography: Geology versus Geography

Just a very important question about scopes of terminology. Is an article about the "Canadian Shield" properly part of Canadian geography or geology? Is geology properly the rocks and minerals contained within the geographical area or is it the area itself? I see the term physiography getting used and that was not current in my youth. And then are these properly "regions" or "provinces"? I have seen both "Appalachian Region" and "Appalachian Province". Are any of these valid distinctions or are they synonyms? And what is the wikipedia convention on this question?

I am finding some orphan stub articles on Canadian physiographic areas and I am attaching them to their proper larger categories. For example, the Hudson Bay Lowlands exists as a stub article. This is a recognised Canadian physiographic region, but it is not labelled as such and does not appear to be linked to any larger groupings. Is it within the scope of this Geology project or does it belong elsewhere? BeeTea 01:25, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Hello - I can only offer an opinion: to me, the word "shield" is a geologic one, not geographic, and it does refer to the area itself. However, the name "Canadian shield" has had enough popular use that it has come to suggest the physiographic and geographic area defined by the geologic shield. So current usage would make it come under both categories. So, in this particular case, I guess I would be happy for "Canadian shield" to be categorized both ways. This would not apply to other shields, though, as they have not developed the common use this one has. My 2 cents... Cheers Geologyguy 02:24, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
I agree with Geologyguy. The term could both describe the area and the geological feature. I guess in the same way that a volcano or a rift valley could. MeanStreets "...Chorizo..." 21:53, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

This is just adding to my confusion. I know the terms are interchangeable -- that is the problem. Or part of it. Let's try this: georegions, geoprovinces, geotopes. What branch of geoology is concerned with the identification, nomenclature and taxonomy of the land? Such as: Appalachian Highlands, Pacific Cordillera, Hudson Bay Lowlands, Innuitian Region, Canadian Shield, etc? Who works on locating boundaries between geologic regions and refining the hierarchy? BeeTea 00:02, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

Well, I would say most of those are physiographic terms. "Pacific Cordillera", despite its geologic contexts, is however definitely not one single geologic entity, but a real amalgamation of many. I guess I don't really understand your problem - is it a question of an article like "Hudson Bay Lowlands" belonging to the category Geology or not? In that particular case, based on the current content of the stub, I would say no. But that is not to say that someone who knows about the geology that underpins the lowlands (and probably contributes to their physiographic character) might not add such info, and the article would then be categorizable as Geology as well. Within geology, geomorphology is the study of landforms, and that term has largely subsumed the term 'physiography' in many usages, though 'physiography' is still often taken to be the descriptive element of such study, and 'geomorphology' as the more interpretive element. Physical geography focuses on the description and origin of landforms, and as such is sometimes taken to be a combination of physiography and geomorphology (and sometimes including soil science). I assume this still does not really solve your question - can you re-state or elucidate further? Cheers Geologyguy 04:25, 31 May 2007 (UTC)
Somewhat along these lines, I have created an article at Physiographic regions of the world along with three new categories, tl:Physiographic divisions, tl:Physiographic provinces and tl:Physiographic sections. Any help anybody wants to offer is appreciated, and if anybody has ideas on how to improve it or the process, those are just as welcome. Thanks. wbfergus Talk 18:30, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

Help needed with problem user

Ethel Aardvark (talk · contribs) has been making some undesirable edits to Pleistocene megafauna and New World Pleistocene extinctions. They are quite badly written and contain OR. On Pleistocene megafauna, I attempted to incorporate all useful information from his addition and rewrite it. He then simply reverted me 3 times, and when I left an explanation on his talk after the 2nd, he ignored it and left a message at my talk incorrectly characterising my revert as 'removing huge chunks'. I haven't reverted him on the second article since I plan to merge it with the first, after allowing some time for discussion. The way, the truth, and the light 19:07, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

This matter still has not been resolved. There have now been 2 more reverts. The way, the truth, and the light 03:17, 2 June 2007 (UTC)
And still not. I can't tell if anyone's here now because of the contribs bug, but he's reverted once more. He's also now reverted me at Megafauna without even looking at my edits, and using a false edit summary. Someone needs to stop him. The way, the truth, and the light 01:04, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
And now 2 more. Would someone respond please? The way, the truth, and the light 02:41, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
He's now stopped, after being blocked. No help from any of you. The way, the truth, and the light 02:57, 6 June 2007 (UTC)
I was just having a look through all the stuff trying to work out what was going on and who was who, when I saw he'd been blocked. So I thought I'd wait and see if that fixed it. Eve 10:19, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

Possibly problematic images at Timetable of the Precambrian

There are two graphs at this article (used nowhere else), (2 images removed), uploaded by the same person as self-created (presumably true).

These graphs seem to be undesirable. They are confusing, I can't tell which line is supposed to correspond to what. Even after study, some of them are still mysterious. The writing is misleading, the titles refer to 'effects', which is not what's shown (at least in the second graph), and the side-legends are not helpful. Finally, the graphs may well be original research and not sourced. I will ask the images' creator after discussion here as to what to do.

The reason I thought so is that the second image purports to contain a curve of atmospheric nitrogen partial pressure. I have never seen such in the literature, even though I have looked. It is certainly an interesting question; the nitrogen in the Earth's atmosphere can't have remained constant throughout the Earth's history, even though most analyses assume it did. The way, the truth, and the light 03:17, 2 June 2007 (UTC)

Yes, those are confusing. Please move to the article's talk page or coment out. --mav 03:54, 2 June 2007 (UTC)
Agree with Mav; at least ask the author/uploader what is the basis for the information - it very much needs references, otherwise as you say it looks like OR. Cheers Geologyguy 04:28, 2 June 2007 (UTC)
However, I think that some graph of this would be desirable, just not these! I'll ask him about the sources. The way, the truth, and the light 05:54, 2 June 2007 (UTC)
Since none of you have suggested any change, and the creator has not replied, I'm removing the images. The way, the truth, and the light 02:57, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

User page for User:Keshe Theory nominated for deletion

The user page for User:Keshe Theory has been nominated for deletion. This is basically an article promoting a pseudoscientific theory on a user page. As an article, it would be deleted because it is not supported by reliable references. Since this seems to involve geology, as it makes claims about a third core within the Earth, I thought that this WikiProject would be interested. Please go comment at Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/User:Keshe Theory. Dr. Submillimeter 09:44, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

a bunch of things were prodded because of transwiki to wiktionary on June 3rd

Chasma, Dorsum, Flexus, Flumen, Fluctus, Linea, Macula (planetary geology), Mensa (geology), Rupes, Tholus. Personally, I feel they should be redirected somewhere... 132.205.44.134 22:36, 6 June 2007 (UTC)

Oceanography Project Proposal

Oceanography is an important subject requiring attention on Wikipedia. Many articles require cleaning up and expansion, and there are many missing articles. Some standardization would be helpful. Is there any interest in forming an Oceanography WikiProject? It would be an undertaking, so it's important that there be enough interest to maintain it, but it is something that should happen when possible. Looking to other WikiProjects for ideas and for illustrating the power of projects to improve areas is helpful, some related WikiProjects I'm involved in that have improved things greatly are Meteorology, Tropical cyclones, and Climate change. Evolauxia 06:41, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

The project is proposed at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals#Oceanography. Evolauxia 06:41, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Geology of the Lassen volcanic area

I was going to put this through peer review first to allow for comments, but what the hell. Please add your suggestions for improvement directly to the FAC page. Better yet, be bold and edit away. :) --mav 01:55, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

collaboration of the week/month?

Anybody here interested in starting a collaboration of the week or even month? Would be a good way to get some A level and even GA and FA geology articles. We should focus our efforts on Top and High importance articles that need help. --mav 05:43, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

i think thats a great idea. Sushant gupta (talk · contribs) 06:26, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Geology-stub subcats

I'm having another go at reducing the size of Cat:geology stubs; please see this proposal, and give your thoughts on it. Alai 02:16, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

Strong support - and also I would suggest splitting mineral-stub by breaking out a new rock-stub. Willing to help populate new stubs when created. Back when I created geology-stub in 2004 I didn't ask, just did it. Guess you gotta ask now :-) Vsmith 02:52, 18 June 2007 (UTC)
Not sure about breaking out rocks from minerals. On some level, it's all the same stuff and any drive to draw a line through the pile will result in a lot of hair-splitting over where the stub belongs which could be better applied to actually writing the damn article. BeeTea 11:55, 18 June 2007 (UTC)
Actually there are only a few monomineralic rocks that might be problematic, dolomite and flint are two examples. For the vast majority there would be no conflict. And with some 800 stubs in the cat, a split is overdue. Vsmith 12:30, 18 June 2007 (UTC)
Maybe not quite gotta, but it has been known for there to be... comments if it's not done quite right. :) (Basically like most things in Wikipedia, it's basically just grown enormously, to the point where the stub-sorting project has not only a centralised page for discussing stub templates and categories ahead of creation, but another where we kvetch about^W^Wdiscuss what to do with stub types that weren't proposed...) Alai 06:39, 30 June 2007 (UTC)
Support. Makes sense to me with the assumption that all these stubs will be under the roof of this project. Solarapex 03:15, 18 June 2007 (UTC)
Strong support. Some ideas: tectonic-stub for anything to do with plates, cratons, platforms, orogenies, rifts, faults, etc; some sort of geo-event-stub for specific events like "the great quake of blank" or "the eruption of year" or the Tsunami of a few years ago, where the human factor overwhelms the geological back-story because these were often very ordinary geological events which just happened to strike where humans happened to live; is there a crater-stub for impact craters on Earth? BeeTea 11:55, 18 June 2007 (UTC)

Another two proposed: petrology and geologic formations. Alai 06:33, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

I also didn't know you had to "propose" a stub categoryand ran afoul of a stub policeman. The Wikiproject:Soil was initially dominated by soil scientists (and bully for them), the stub they created was "soil science" which made sense. Now geotechnical engineers and, hopefully, geologists like myself are also contributing to the project and there is quite a bit of overlap between fields. But as we know, not everything soil is "soil science". I don't know what the politics are or how to "properly" propose a stub category and frankly don't have the time or inclination to duke it out to make it happen, but think it makes sensethat if there is a wikiproject named "soil" there should be a stub named "soil" which encompases more about the topic than just "soil science". Does anyone else feel like taking this on? I can imagine what the soil scientists would think if the stub for that entire topic was named "quaternary deposits" or "overburden".... Drillerguy 14:10, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event

We're currently improving this article, with the aim to eventually send it to FAC. Anything WikiProject Geology members can do to help, even just comments on the text, is greatly appreciated. Firsfron of Ronchester 17:00, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

Featured Article Review for Geology of the Bryce Canyon area

A Featured Article Review has been filed for the article Geology of the Bryce Canyon area, editers are invited to comment on the article at Wikipedia:Featured article review/Geology of the Bryce Canyon area. TomStar81 (Talk) 19:39, 9 July 2007 (UTC)


Geology of the Bryce Canyon area has been nominated for a featured article review. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. Please leave your comments and help us to return the article to featured quality. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, articles are moved onto the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article from featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Reviewers' concerns are here. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 20:15, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

Old Faithful Geyser

On the Old Faithful Geyser page, it states that Harry M. Woodward was the first person to discover a mathematical relationship between eruption times. I can't find a source for this and the main bio page doesn't have any sources either. Can any of you guys help me out? If there are no sources than perhaps this should be removed. --Hdt83 Chat 08:21, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Geological history of Earth

hi guys, i have nominated Geological history of Earth page for FAC. please leave your comments and kind suggestions. Sushant gupta 01:34, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Nusée ardente

Is there really such a thing as a Nusée ardente in geology ? I couldn't find it on Google. Guroadrunner 04:47, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

I think not. The phrase is not in any of the three editions of the Glossary of Geology I have, and "nusée" is not a form of any French word in my Cassell's French dictionary. I think the article is a hoax and I will nominate it for deletion unless someone comes along with evidence supporting the phrase. Cheers Geologyguy 04:57, 25 July 2007 (UTC)
Nuee ardente is (literally) "glowing cloud", and is a term coined for the famous eruption that destroyed a port town in Martinique, early in the 20th C. The term may have fallen out of favor, but was certainly current when I took volcanology classes (mumble) years ago, and visited the site in question, whose name escapes me. Ah, Mt Pelee, and St. Pierre.
Ah, now I see the nusee part: typo for nuee. Anyway, we have nuee ardente as a redirect to pyroclastic flow, so the Nusee article should, indeed, be deleted -- see talk page there. Cheers, Pete Tillman 20:02, 30 July 2007 (UTC)
Glad to read the English terminology has changed, for I believe in adopting a foreign term if and only if there is no equivalent one in the English language: 'glowing cloud' seemed equivalent to 'nuée ardente', which is a small subset of 'pyroclastic flow' isn't it? - one that glows red in spots, boils the sea & sets wooden ships at sail ablaze (I had only read about Martinique). These 'glowing couds' appear very different than the 'pyroclastic flows' during the Mt St Helens eruption in the western USA. (I see that 'tephra' now has its spelling latinized to 'tefra', though I used the term 'tuff' for a glassy rock with shards visible in the microscope. Specimens of rhyolite tuffs were usually classified as formed by 'ash falls' or 'ash flows', depending upon their properties. This comment is to prepare one for my remarks on positivism and 'Intrusive/Extrusive and Volcanic/Plutonic' (now topic 29) below. Geologist (talk) 03:45, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

Request for advice on source

I have additional material on the geology of Inyangani mountain: "The dolerite sill and the sediments underlying it are probably part of the Umkondo Group" [1]. Would this be a reasonable source, or would it infringe "no original research", be classified as self-promotion etc? Non-one has mapped the place yet, so this is the only information available, apart from a (hard copy, unpublished) report held by the Zimbabwe Geological Survey.

  1. ^ Love, D. 2002. The geology of Nyangani Mountain: a preliminary report. University of Zimbabwe Earth Science Research Seminar Series, February 2002. [1]
The link does not work for me, but based on the source it would seem to be almost, but perhaps not quite, as "published" as a lot of things that are cited (I've seen refs that are links to research on professor's school web pages, which are certainly not "peer reviewed"). Are you D. Love? is that why you asked about Original Research and self-promotion? Would the unpublished report by the Zimbabwe Geological Survey be available in the equivalent of an open-file manner? Things certainly do not have to be accesible online to be citable. There's my two cents. Cheers Geologyguy 19:36, 30 July 2007 (UTC)
The link only works when the webserver hosting it has power, which is maybe 40 % of the time these days. I am indeed D Love. The report (by someone else) is an openfile report, just not accessible online.Babakathy 13:44, 31 July 2007 (UTC)
That sounds ok to me. I would just be careful of the WP:COI potential, if you are the one doing the research also. Maybe hightlight that fact on the talk page? It's not a huge deal, unless you are going to make some wide sweeping claims that are based only on your info. Have a great edititing day! --Rocksanddirt 14:56, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

MYA, mya or Ma

Input needed here. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 00:14, 2 August 2007 (UTC)

Middle Miocene disruption

Hi, could I have someone who is a bit more up in this area please look at this article. I am not sure how "established" it is. thanks. - SimonLyall 10:59, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

Help understanding articles

Hi, I have a couple articles that I cannot understand and I was hoping someone could make them more comprehensible. They are North China craton and Western Block (North China Craton). Thanks! --Ideogram 01:40, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

Invertebrate paleontology

The article Invertebrate paleontology may benefit from additional contributions. Thanks! -- Jreferee (Talk) 20:09, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

Intrusive/Extrusive and Volcanic/Plutonic

There seems to be an inconsistency between description and interpretation for these types of rocks on the wikipedia pages.

From my understanding, volcanic and plutonic are descriptive terms of the grain size of igneous rocks. Intrusive and extrusive are interpretations of the origin of the rock. For example, imagine a fine grained igneous layer between two sedimentary layers with high quartz and alkali feldspar. You could describe this rock as volcanic, as it is fine grained. You could describe it as rhyolite (or rhylitoid), due to the mineralogical composition. But you can't describe it as extrusive or intrusive. It could either be a sill (intrusive) or a flow deposit (extrusive).

My point being, I keep seeing statements on articles like "Rhyolite is an igneous, volcanic (extrusive) rock", which is incorrect. This inconsistency seems to span mutliple articles. Maybe a project could be made to fix this.

Afrotrance 06:48, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

You're right, strictly speaking - but most volcanic, fine-grained rocks are extrusive, and most plutonic, coarse-grained rocks are intrusive. (Although "volcanic" to me is indeed synonymous with eruptive and must be extrusive.) The intermediate things (shallow dikes and sills) are often called hypabyssal (sometimes subvolcanic), implying intermediate (but still shallow) or indeterminate depth. As a field interpretation, and in the absence of detailed analysis, most geologists would probably tell lay persons that rhyolite is indeed "an igneous, volcanic (extrusive) rock". A very precise speaker might insert the word "usually" in that sentence. I would not change this usage. That's my 2 cents (US) worth. Cheers Geologyguy 13:56, 25 August 2007 (UTC)
My views differ from everyones', which is why I only criticize. I'm not convinced one need be quite so vague when addressing a lay audience. This elementary question is fundamental and should perhaps be resolved, for it addresses a topic in the methodology of science. Though not active in geology, I still separate properties from objects from origins. Thus a rock has certain properties, including texture. Rhyolite's texture is microcrystalline (aphanitic) or glassy (vitreous); and granite's texture is visibly crystalline (phaneritic). The other terms characterize specimens, not rocks. Were specimens seen to explode into the sky, flow along the ground, or extrude slightly (bubble-free, usually), these specimens would all be volcanic; but only the last would have be extruded, proving it extrusive. Mapping connects observable or measurable properties that define rocks (rhyolites & granites), with observable or measurable properties that define stuctures (volcanos & plutons); and theory connects specimens of both with genetic processes (extrusive & intrusive, for example). I don't know whether such usage is common, but it clarifies the reasoning of geologists for me. Geologist (talk) 12:40, 13 December 2007 (UTC)
My contributions are only critiques of others, but I strongly feel the 'talk pages' have great potential to civilization. When a student of geology, I always attempted to make my terminology consistent with that used by chemists, physicists, and especially mathematicians, whose terms are consistent with formal logic & (when possible) everyday usage. I hoped that all scientific terminology could someday become somewhat consistent. (As an example, geologists who have developed 'ad hoc' techniques or objects from other sciences have often chosen names that conflict with the names used in those sciences.)
The rare rhyolite flow, and obsidian domes are well-termed 'extrusive' (like extensive basalt flows), but ash-flow tuffs were commonly called 'effusive'. This leads one to ask what similar term we should use for the falling of ash from the sky, forming ash-fall tuffs.
The Wikipedia could strive to evolve an exact, precise, and consistent nomenclature in its articles, something not attempted elsewhere. This could be done by inviting reviews (in Talk sections) from lexicographers & researchers in various disciplines. Meteorologists, for example, may already have a good term for the falling of precipitation. By unifying nomenclature, the Wikipedia could contribute to unifying science and help all scientists speak (something strongly frowned upon when I was at university: a sociological phenomenon which lay people who supported science are only now learning of). Geologist (talk) 04:27, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

allowing unconverted metric units in scientific articles

I'm seeking consensus at MOSNUM talk for a change in the wording to allow contributors, by consensus only, to use unconverted metrics in scientific articles. Your opinions are invited. Tony 15:18, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Soil article

Hello, there is a discussion at Talk:Soil which is desiring additional participants. Thanks. – Basar (talk · contribs) 22:55, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

The soil article needs peer and expert input from a geological perspective. A section on soil formation told from a balanced geosciences perspective is needed in particular. -- Paleorthid (talk) 00:37, 26 November 2007 (UTC)
New soil formation section: WP:GEOLOGY participants invited to edit mercilessly. -- Paleorthid (talk) 01:05, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Bowen's Reaction Series

Soil scientists are needed to look at "Bowen's Reaction Series". This is, IMO, a graphical proof of the founding theorem in modern petrology: the potential importance of peritectic chemical reactions in forming various igneous rocks from one magma. Bowen's presentation of it proved of the greatest importance in geology, and it has nothing to do with the weathering of minerals (as is claimed there). I believe soil scientists would find the claimed order of weathering presented in the article either non-existent or possibly opposite, thus encouraging the article's rewrite. Thanks! Geologist (talk) 05:26, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

Some highlights in petrology's history were the observation of active volcanos in Italy, interpreting ancient cones as those of volcanos in southern France, claiming basalt - the rock composing their flows - igneous, illustrating that two magmas could mix to form all the rocks of Iceland, explaining primal magmas as eutectic mixtures, and Bowen's illustrating that a single magma could form a series of mineral assemblages as it cooled, mineral assemblages which composed igneous rock long believed to be genetically related. This striking relation opened a new field of geology: chemical petrology, whose two principal tools are still exactly those used by Bowen to derive & explain his 'reaction series'. I suggest the article be 'bumped up' in importance. Geologist (talk) 05:26, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

X-ray crystallography

The article on X-ray crystallography is all over the place. It appears to be written by a number of editors who have read up on the topic for proteins, with random facts about fundamental x-ray crystallography thrown in. It is inaccurate, and lacks the understanding of the relationship between the wavelength of x-rays in the electromagnetic spectrum and the spacing of atoms in a crystal. The editors are aggressively owning the article, and I am unwilling to edit it without the appropriate in-line sources, as the entire article is so poorly organized and inaccurate. I would greatly appreciate if anyone with a geology background who has taken a course in x-ray crystallography could write an introductory section from scratch to what x-ray crystallography is. KP Botany 04:11, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

Owning the article? That's an unfair accusation. Has anyone removed any of your contributions? No, because you haven't edited the article except to add templates. Your contribution would be more than welcome. --Itub 07:53, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
The technique is also used in metalurgy. Please add what you know! Graeme Bartlett 12:48, 24 September 2007 (UTC)
Many articles in petrology horrify me, the authors have not ignored but dismissed the few, most egregious errors pointed to in the Talk section. I should hesitate to write or rewrite any article without discussion (for authors only benefit from peer review), even if I were currently active in research. Clearly, since the importance to physicists of the original discovery of X-ray diffraction by minerals, the importance of & interest in the technique has risen & subsided at different times in different branches of science. One might expect the principal article to present these, balanced by importance, then break off into more specialized presentations (links with more specialized titles).
However, no correction by me (forget suggestions) has interested any authors in correcting an article; and I'm not qualified to do so myself. However, I know this and wished to help improve articles in my field of expertise, not replace them. I had hoped others' experiences were not like mine. That an introductory section of any article (the most difficult section) could be written by someone who once had an undergraduate course in it is a frightening suggestion; but I am seeing articles, completely wrong, written by uncompromising hobbyists in geology. It must sadden all that more experts of the highest quality do not contribute. Editing is a very significant commitment (for I once wrote some Mineralogical Abstracts), and often experts have narrow fields of expertise. In any case, your post suggests some scientists are not cooperating. Commercial encyclopedias avoid this problem by committing some of the finest experts in advance. This strength limits that encyclopedia's breadth.
I'm devoting much time teaching my 4-year old granddaughter to compromise; if mature scientists still can't, some well-balanced scientists, perhaps retired members from the US's NAS, may need somehow to be drawn in to moderate or otherwise solve this problem. Bourbaki once asked that an entire mathematics book be rewritten (and not because of errors), and the author complied. If such experts' suggestions were treated here as many have been, I should understand their loss of interest. (The few authors I corrected did respond, but the responses were either false guesses, seemingly to shoo me away, or references to vague and clearly 'in apropos' statements in the literature.) 'Owning' an article appears a real problem. I wish I had a remedy to suggest. Geologist (talk) 06:54, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

State geological article requests

Wow. I honestly expected wikipedia to have full detailed articles on Geology by state e.g Geology of California or Geology of Utah. I'm not even from the States but I had fully expected a detailed article on each state. Some of the American geological articles are very poor or non existent see Basic geologic features of each state. PLease could your project aim to start these articles and develop them. All the best and thanks ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ "Talk"? 13:02, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Have you seen Geology_of_the_United_States_by_state? You'll see that "Geology of California" and most other states are categories. Granted that there are not necessarily summary articles for each state, but in many cases such articles would have to be very long to cover the diversity present. I'm not disagreeing that such summaries ought to be here, but it is a lot of work and pretty much demands an expert to summarize such a scope of time and geological events. Meanwhile, the category does have dozens of articles. Cheers Geologyguy 15:33, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
I understand that people think in terms of states, but I prefer to have articles by geologic feature, so that there would be one article on the Rocky Mountains, and not seven, e.g. Rocky Mts in Wyoming etc, one article on Basin and Range Province and not four or five. This is also true in the eastern U.S. where state boundaries are often slightly more related to topography, but still usually unrelated to the geology. I would expect a state geographical section, or article, to refer to the appropriate geological features which would then have there own articles. In the 1970s, I worked (at a low level job) on a project to justify (as in make correct) the boundary geology between New Mexico and Texas north of 34° N, because the maps issued by the respective state bureaus did not match up. It highlighted for me the inelegance of using political boundaries for geology. I would not like to have that type of problem repeated in the organization of information in the Wikipedia. --Bejnar 16:05, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
Strong agreement with Bejnar. Cheers Geologyguy 16:50, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Possible error in the articles?

On the page, Gibbsite, it states that Diaspore is HAlO2, which is different than what Diaspore says on its page. Is this correct? Thanks, Marasama 19:55, 29 September 2007 (UTC) (CarpD)

In my copy of Deer, Howie & Zussman, An introduction to the rock-forming minerals, it states that Diaspore is alpha-AlO(OH) and Boehmite is gamma-AlO(OH) the difference being in the packing of the oxygens, hexagonal and cubic respectively. So the Gibbsite article appears to be in error. Mikenorton 20:12, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Chicxulub Crater at FAC

Hey, just noting that the article Chicxulub Crater, under this project's umbrella, has been nominated at FAC. I'm kinda hoping people knowledgeable about such articles could provide their 2 cents. Here's the FAC page. David Fuchs (talk) 21:13, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Central American Seaway

Hello. I created a stub article for the Central American Seaway. I am a marine biologist, not a geologist or a paleoceanographer at all, but I linked to it in the walrus article since its closure triggered divergence of the species, and was surprised to find that the article does not exist. Perhaps it does under a different name? If so, it should be removed. Otherwise, perhaps someone qualified can develop it. After all, it's closure was one of the more momentous oceonographic/evolutionary events in the last however many mya, no? Best, Eliezg 01:02, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Portal:Earth sciences

massive changes have been done in the portal. if anyone would like to accompany me then do tell me timely. thanks, Sushant gupta 12:49, 6 October 2007 (UTC)


Oil shale

Oil shale is an Good Article candidate now. Your comments are most welcome.Beagel 10:48, 20 October 2007 (UTC)

Proposed deletion: Madagascar (software)

Madagascar (software) (via WP:PROD)

I thought this might be of interest to the participants in this WikiProject as it deals with geophysics.
--User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 15:38, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Notice of List articles

Page(s) related to this project have been created and/or added to one of the Wikipedia:Contents subpages (not by me).

This note is to let you know, so that experts in the field can expand them and check them for accuracy, and so that they can be added to any watchlists/tasklists, and have any appropriate project banners added, etc. Thanks. --Quiddity 19:39, 5 November 2007 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Scientific peer review

This Scientific Peer Review project can hardly be called successful. While there have been a steady but small flow of articles submitted for review, the actual reviews have been either non-existent or in no real way different from those done through the standard Wikipedia:Peer review process. Some editors will recall that the project was started with an enthusiastic discussion about identifying expert reviewers through an elected board. Unfortunately as time went by, it became clear there was no consensus on whether we had a board, or on how it was to be set up or on what it was supposed to do. There was also a lack of consensus on what "sciences" we were covering, and on many other aspects. In the end we sort of lapsed into a minimal review process which has staggered on for about 18 months. I think it is time we decided what to do about the project. Unless people can come up with a new way forward and enthusiastically implement it, I think we have to declare that this project be no longer active in any sense and that editors should ask for review at WP:PR. I am posting this on the talk pages of the major Science WikiProjects. Please feel free to publicize it elsewhere. Please add you comments at Wikipedia talk:Scientific peer review#Is this inactive?. --Bduke 01:49, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

"Pridoli epoch" vs. "Přídolí epoch"

I don't doubt that Přídolí is the proper spelling in Czech of the place after which the Pridoli epoch is named. But can anyone provide a substantial reference for calling the "Pridoli epoch" the "Přídolí epoch" in English? There is plenty of evidence for "Pridoli epoch" in English, see, e.g. GeoWhen Database. Shouldn't changes in naming, such as the changing "Pridoli epoch" to "Přídolí epoch" as done by Verisimilus, be discussed first? --Bejnar (talk) 13:30, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

The USGS appears to use Pridoli. "Divisions of Geologic Time—Major Chronostratigraphic and Geochronologic Units" USGS, "Strategraphis Nomenclature and Description" Suggestions to Authors of the Reports of the United States Geological Survey --Bejnar (talk) 20:50, 6 December 2007 (UTC)
If there is no objection, I will change it back to "Pridoli epoch". So if there is objection please state it. --Bejnar (talk) 20:47, 6 December 2007 (UTC)
The most definitive chart available is probably Gradstein et al. 2004, it uses plain Pridoli. I support changing it back, we don't use the Russian alphabet for Moscovian. Mikenorton (talk) 22:39, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Chicxulub FAC redux

Chicxulub Crater has been renom'd for WP:FAC. You can find the discussion here. David Fuchs (talk) 20:31, 23 November 2007 (UTC)

A few article merger proposals

Hi all. I figured this would be a good place to stop by and elicit some comments for three merger proposals I have on Cordillera Occidental, Andes, Cordillera Central, Andes, and Cordillera Oriental. Since the issues are all the same, the discussions are all located on the same talk page at Talk:Cordillera Oriental. They were all merged together, and I left a message on a user's talk page asking to please start using the new merged page instead (after a revert), and he went back the next day and reverted back all of the pages. Any comments or ideas pro or con would be welcomed. Thanks. wbfergus Talk 15:26, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

RFC on Cordillera

At RFC South America cordillera articles there is an RFC on whether the Oriental, Central and Occidental Cordillera should be discussed in three separate articles with those names, with subdivision by mountain range, or whether these articles should be done by nationality. See wbfergus's comment above. --Bejnar (talk) 20:41, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Greenspun illustration project: requests now open

Dear Wikimedians,

This is a (belated) announcement that requests are now being taken for illustrations to be created for the Philip Greenspun illustration project (PGIP).

The aim of the project is to create and improve illustrations on Wikimedia projects. You can help by identifying which important articles or concepts are missing illustrations (diagrams) that could make them a lot easier to understand. Requests should be made on this page: Philip_Greenspun_illustration_project/Requests

If there's a topic area you know a lot about or are involved with as a Wikiproject, why not conduct a review to see which illustrations are missing and needed for that topic? Existing content can be checked by using Mayflower to search Wikimedia Commons, or use the Free Image Search Tool to quickly check for images of a given topic in other-language projects.

The community suggestions will be used to shape the final list, which will be finalised to 50 specific requests for Round 1, due to start in January. People will be able to make suggestions for the duration of the project, not just in the lead-up to Round 1.

thanks, pfctdayelise (talk) 13:11, 13 December 2007 (UTC) (Project coordinator)


"Mo-clay" in Fur Formation

We have a new stub on Fur Formation (Lower Eocene, Denmark). The article mentions "Mo-clay", which is currently a redlink (I suspect could use a redirect to an existing article.) The article could also use any additional contributions that anyone cares to add. -- Writtenonsand (talk) 15:19, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

Paleogeology

We need someone to work on the paleogeology article; I recently had to do a report on it and wikipedia barely helped, if at all. I had to resort to emailing a young professional in the field of paleogeology with only five recognized publications, of the name of 'Clay Garretson' (oh, Clay, if you're reading this, hi. ^_^). I see that the article is marked 'high-importance' on the assessment scale, but the talk page is devoid of any conversation, and the article was edited last June 21st, 2007, and was edited a grand total of 10 times, over the course of two years, yielding only a single paragraph, and a small one at that. I'd adapt information from my essay, but all of the material that could be adapted is 'original research.' I'd expect a stub marked high-importance to get much more attention than this. Someone, save this thing. Yadaman (talk) 21:19, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

It had been by impression that the study of the history and origins of the Earth (regional or Worldwide) was called 'geology', and all abstract fields & theories (such as plate tectonics) are created toward this end. The article might clarify the difference between geology and paleogeology, and (since I've never heard the word), reference its etymology. Geologist (talk) 01:59, 18 December 2007 (UTC)

Request for input re Science Super-Categories

There is a CFD discussion underway at Wikipedia:Categories_for_discussion/Log/2007_December_15#Category:Physical_sciences regarding the relationship between, and possible merging of, two Categories: Category:Physical sciences and Category:Natural sciences. Thus far the discussion has attracted very few comments and it has been relisted. Two editors suggested asking for input from this Project, but as far as I can see there was no follow-through on that -- until now. So please give this some thought, and then share your thoughts at the CFD linked above. Thanks! --Bduke (talk) 04:51, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

    • Geologist - my understanding is anyone can comment at CfD - no qualifications necessary! DuncanHill (talk) 02:41, 20 December 2007 (UTC)
  • Duncan, thank you. My comments were moved by me, and expanded. (Must have had a bad connection.) Geologist (talk) 04:54, 20 December 2007 (UTC)
  • I have just made a significant alternative proposal. Please take a look and add your comments to this important discussion. Cgingold (talk) 02:25, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

A bit of recognition

Arizona State Geologist's weblog says for 12-28-07 says, "Wikipedia recently started WikiProject Geology, "a collaboration area and group of editors dedicated to improving Wikipedia's coverage of geology."... If you look at geology topics in Wikipedia now, it's pretty incomplete and eclectic. While a number of scientists disparage Wikipedia for its reputation of errors and biases, it is still one of the main online resources, especially for students and others not familiar with geology. It behooves the geologic community to help make sure geology is well represented and accurate online." --Best for 2008, Pete Tillman (talk) 18:15, 31 December 2007 (UTC)


Believe It Or Maybe Not: Patagonia Molasses

List of fossil sites lists 'Patagonia Molasses (Argentina, Miocene). Obviously, weirder things than this are true, and there are 100 or so Google hits for this, but are they all clones of Wikipedia articles in various languages? Can anybody confirm or refute this? -- Writtenonsand (talk) 21:57, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

Found this on JSTOR (alas don't have access) "The Tehuelche or Patagonian Shingle-Formation. A Contribution to the Study of Its Origin Carl Caldenius Geografiska Annaler, Vol. 22, 1940 (1940), pp. 160-181 doi:10.2307/519981". DuncanHill (talk) 22:00, 24 January 2008 (UTC)
JSTOR link is [2]. I found it by googling patagonia molasses. DuncanHill (talk) 22:01, 24 January 2008 (UTC)
I know nothing about it, but it should probably be molasse rather than molasses; it would be a reference similar to those citing a formation. Cheers Geologyguy (talk) 22:02, 24 January 2008 (UTC)
And this from Science Direct [3] mentions mollases deposits in Patagonia. DuncanHill (talk) 22:06, 24 January 2008 (UTC)
Hehehe! I'm guessing you're right about the molasse, I imagine someone (possibly a non-native speaker?) didn't realise pluralising it would have unintended implications. Still, it gave me a few wonderful minutes of syrupy daydreaming...
Incidentally, the quote from the JSTOR article is on p18 of the full version, and the sentence reads: "The Pliocene landscape-topography was completely destroyed by the preceeding or contemporaneous denudation of the soft rock-ground, the loose sediments of which, tuffs, molasses, clays etc., were easily broken down and removed." Which supports the pluralisation theory. Eve (talk) 22:38, 24 January 2008 (UTC)
The Glossary of Geology does not list a plural, but inasmuch as molasse refers to a facies, a sequence, a formation, a package of rocks, to my mind the plural would only apply when you are talking about two such packages - thus the molasse of Patagonia and the molasse of Switzerland would together be referred to as molasses, but each alone is a molasse. My 2 cents (US) - Cheers Geologyguy (talk) 23:07, 24 January 2008 (UTC)
The original term molasse (french for very soft) or perhaps mollasse (french for flabby) was a swiss-french local term for a soft, unstable rock in the alpine foreland, coined in 1789, and was expanded later to its now common geological meaning. So the plural just means soft rocks, I think.--Jo (talk) 08:56, 25 January 2008 (UTC)
  • Of course, one does find treacle mines here and there, so molasses isn't really that surprizing. DuncanHill (talk) 11:23, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

Reminder of the Philip Greenspun Illustration project

Hi. You may be familiar with the Philip Greenspun Illustration Project. $20,000 has been donated to pay for the creation of high quality diagrams for Wikipedia and its sister projects.

Requests are currently being taken at m:Philip Greenspun illustration project/Requests and input from members of this project would be very welcome. If you can think of any diagrams (not photos or maps) that would be useful then I encourage you to suggest them at this page. If there is any free content material that would assist in drawing the diagram then it would be great if you could list that, too.

If there are any related (or unrelated) WikiProjects you think might have some suggestions then please pass this request over. Thanks. --Cherry blossom tree 16:42, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Athanasius Kircher FAR

Athanasius Kircher has been nominated for a featured article review. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. Please leave your comments and help us to return the article to featured quality. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, articles are moved onto the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Remove" the article from featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. Reviewers' concerns are here. Nishkid64 (talk) 05:24, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

Map Symbols???

I was wondering if the editor will ever have the appropriate map symbols for the Triassic (instead of Tr), Pennsylvanian, and the Cambrian? The uses of "C" for Cambrian is wrong and it's difficult to find an equivilent for the "P" w/an extra vertical line for Pennsylvanian.Jmpenzone (talk) 22:30, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Too big for text, but there is this image: Image:Triassicsymbol.jpg. Cheers Geologyguy (talk) 23:08, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Meguma terrane

I've just added Meguma terrane but as I'm a computer scientist, not a geologist, it would appreciate it if someone took a quick look at it. Mangoe (talk) 04:07, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

Geology help

Hi as part of WikiProject Derbyshire i've been working away at Derbyshire. The thing is it needs a section on Geology and I am clueless on where to start. I'm sure there are lots of interesting geology based stuff in Derbyshire but i'm lost. If anyone would like to lend a hand to an article that needs quite a bit of work then it would be much appreciated. I'm not sure if this is inappropriate or the wrong place to do this but i thought i'd ask a geology question to geologist. Dommccas 18:35, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

Here's a geological map of Derbyshire, alas no further info. This you may find at The Peak District info-page, which has some outlines and further links to Derbyshire geology. If you have difficulties in assembling the info, help should be available here. HTH, Jo (talk) 19:27, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

Incorrect information

I am rather terrified by all mistakes and incorrect information that I noticed in Quaternary (stratigraphy and other subjects) pages. This is very embarrassing. I am afraid much has to be rewritten because only correcting mistakes will not be enough. The time is lacking for me to do this, I have only rewritten interglacial optimum and placed a few notes about this matter on a few talk pages. There has to be done a lot, lot of work to improve this before an acceptable level has been reached.--Tom Meijer (talk) 11:35, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

Hi Tom, thanks for your help on interglacial optimum. There is much to be done on the fields of geology, so every contribution is welcome. It would be nice if you'd provide some of the references the above article is severely lacking. A lot of information here is unreferenced, and should be. So keep working, and don't panick: there's no deadline. Jo (talk) 19:01, 21 February 2008 (UTC)
Hallo Jo, I can mostly be found on the Dutch Wikipedia where I contribute to Quaternary geology, palaeontology, and molluscs. Mainly about the Netherlands, but because the Netherlands has a lot of stratotypes this is relevant to other countries as well. I will try to do something here as well, but don't expect miracles. My English needs to be improved now and than, but I suppose that will not be a problem. I will try to find some references to the interglacial optimum page. Best wishes, --Tom Meijer (talk) 19:38, 21 February 2008 (UTC)

Geology of North America and associated navigation template

Folks, we recently moved Geology of the United States to Geology of North America. An editor, Neelix, seems very motivated to create a navigation template to link to the Geology articles of various states and regions. However, very few states have their own geology articles, and it seems to me that in most cases, it wouldn't make as much sense to have such an article, as to have one for the region (for instance, there are no Geology of Oregon or Geology of Washington articles; they redirect to Geology of the Pacific Northwest.)

Just thought you guys would want to know this discussion is taking place, and might have some good ideas about how to proceed. Please discuss at Talk:Geology of North America. Thanks! -Pete (talk) 20:21, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

Reference Desk question

Someone has asked on the Misc RefDesk (here) about a rock they found that has what looks like a heiroglyph on it. I am putting this here in the hope that someone here can give a good answer. I seem to remember that there is a word for a kind of rock that looks like it has writing on it, crypt-something or litterolith or something like that, and I thought it might be one of those. --Milkbreath (talk) 00:45, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

Mass Talk page tagging.

Hi there! I want to start mass tagging geology related article's talk pages so we can identify them. Any objections? CWii(Talk|Contribs) 21:55, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

You can add to the Geology project with

{{WikiProject Geology |class=start |importance=low |attention= |needs-infobox= |peer-review= |old-peer-review= }}

or whatever the class or importance should be. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 03:23, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

Good idea. You might consider getting SatyrBot to do much of it. That's exactly what that bot is good at doing. Aleta (Sing) 03:33, 6 March 2008 (UTC)
Graeme Bartlett, Yes I know 9.9 , Thats what this bot will do. I forgot to mention that this will be done by my bot. CWii(Talk|Contribs) 21:14, 6 March 2008 (UTC)
Ah, ok, I wasn't familiar with your bot. I thought you were thinking of doing it by hand. :) Aleta (Sing) 22:21, 6 March 2008 (UTC)
What algorithm are you planning to use to recognise articles that should be tagged? I sometimes find categories give an idea. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 00:15, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

(undent) Right now I have a list here. I made it by going through appropriate categories relating to geology. CWii(Talk|Contribs) 00:28, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

Some of the things on your list shouldn't be included: for example, Secular Order of Druids, Stonehenge_road_tunnel, Danish_Runic_Inscription_66, J._F._S._Stone, Devil's Arrows, Fjuckby, Züschen (megalithic tomb).
The majority of these are archaeological - perhaps they are included as a result of inappropriate categorisation of Category:Stonehenge and the like.
Less importantly, some (e.g. Rock (geology)) are already tagged with the project banner; I don't know if your bot takes this into account.
Finally, will the bot automatically assess articles marked with a stub template as a stub?
Looks like a good idea when these are ironed out. Verisimilus T 08:55, 7 March 2008 (UTC)
  • If there are any problems with the list, make the changes. I won't mind :) and I'm no rock expert :P
  • Yes the bot will recognize it.
  • And yes it will :)

Thanks for your input CWii(Talk|Contribs) 00:05, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

Or you can even just give me the categories you want. The list IS pretty long ;) CWii(Talk|Contribs) 00:07, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
Okay, the bot is cleared for trial. CWii(Talk|Contribs) 20:38, 8 March 2008 (UTC)
Your bot appears to have gone out of control and tagged the majority of articles on your list - including many of those included in the "unsuitable" categories I mentioned above. I have now amended your list a little, but some inappropriate articles remain. Perhaps you could revert those articles you have tagged that should not belong to the wikiproject? Also, some none-stub articles have been tagged as stubs. Verisimilus T 03:04, 9 March 2008 (UTC)
Out of control? No, that's what it is supposed to do. I understand that the list isn't good, so if you can give me a list of articles or appropriate categories I'll recompile that list for you. CWii(Talk|Contribs) 16:55, 9 March 2008 (UTC)
Sorry, I had assumed that you would wait until you fixed the problems with the list before you set your bot on them. I have removed the majority of bogus articles from it now; unfortunately I'm a bit too busy to do the rest. However, it should not require an expert to deduce whether or not an article is related to geology - I'm sure you could skim through and remove the remaining offenders yourself. It would probably be good etiquette to remove the tags from pages no longer on the amended list. Verisimilus T 17:55, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

FGS

Calling particularly anyone interested on UK geology: I've created a Category:Fellows of the Geological Society of London, which is now in need of populating. There are loads of articles on UK geologists but I'm currently lacking a good source. Pterre (talk) 23:15, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

Wikiproject recent changes log

Copying an idea from WikiProject Volcanoes, I've found it's possible to create a recent changes log of articles tagged by a particular wikiproject, to help project members watch for vandalism. How I *think* it works is by taking a page with every article in the project (in our case WP:WikiProject Geology/Assessment#Assessment_log, I think) linked, and listing the recent changes. Like, for example, this!. I think it would be worth adding to the project page, but someone else might want to check I've understood correctly what it's doing first. Eve (talk) 13:33, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

Yep, you've understood it correctly. Great idea! Verisimilus T 14:21, 9 April 2008 (UTC)
I've added it into the tasks section, but instead of using the assessment page I created a dedicated source page without the other extraneous links. I also added in links to the project pages and templates, so we can monitor them too. If anyone has ideas for other pages that need monitoring but aren't included in the assessment logs, feel free to add them. Eve (talk) 21:06, 10 April 2008 (UTC)
I've now fixed it so that ALL the logs are included, not just the ones from the last month or two. The source page will have to be manually updated every few months, since old logs are deleted from the quality log page after a few months. But it should be working properly now. If you spot an edit on your personal watchlist that should be showing up but isn't, please let me know! Eve (talk) 21:33, 12 April 2008 (UTC) Eve (talk) 21:33, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

Tibet

This article has a WP:WikiProject Geology tag but doesn't actually mention any geology at all. It takes up a great deal of the new and excellent Recent changes log. Are there any objections to removing the tag on this page? Mikenorton (talk) 21:31, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

Aspen Mountain (Wyoming)

I reviewed this article for GA status and placed it on hold for 7 days. There is much expansion that should be done in order to bring it to GA status, and I noticed the article is not tagged for this WikiProject. I am trying to assist the nominator with the article, hoping you folks would be able to help in writing about the geological aspects of this formation. Thank you. --Moni3 (talk) 13:25, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

I've added the tag for this project. Aleta Sing 13:31, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Help in adding geological data to Hogenakkal falls

Hi all! We need a geology expert in adding info onto the above article. I have a few papers on them, but I am not an expert in the field. Assistance in this is very appreciated. Cheers Wiki San Roze †αLҝ 17:24, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Well, I ain't an "expert", but I am creator of the project, as per here. Let me see the papers you've got and I'll see what I can do. But if anyone who knows more about this than I do wants to join in, feel free to do so. :) John Carter (talk) 17:28, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Good article icon

A proposal to add a symbol identifying Good Articles in a similar manner to Featured ones is being discussed: see Wikipedia talk:Good articles#Proposal. Cheers! Wassupwestcoast (talk) 19:36, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Everglades

Hello. I added the WP:GEOLOGY banner to the talk page of this article. I have absolutely no authority to write on the geology of the Everglades, other than the fact that no one else has yet added a section and the article is in very poor condition. It's rated B class, but it is barely that. I added the material in March. If there are geology experts here, I'd appreciate a look at what was added for accuracy and sense. Thank you. --Moni3 (talk) 21:46, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

Vancouver, British Columbia meet-up

Wikimedia Vancouver Meetup

Please come to an informal gathering of Vancouver Wikipedians, Monday, May 5 at 6:30 pm. It will be at Benny's Bagels, 2505 West Broadway. We'd love to see you there, and please invite others! Watch the Vancouver Meetup page for details.

This box: view • talk • edit

Cheers! Wassupwestcoast (talk) 15:34, 30 April 2008 (UTC)

Rhynie chert

I've just expanded the Rhynie chert from little more than a stub to something more worthy of its exceptional status. I wonder if anyone would be willing to take a look at it and bulk out the bits where I ran out of steam, and/or give it a quick copyedit and de-technicalisation? Comments are very welcome on its talk page!

Thanks, Smith609 Talk 17:29, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

Template for this project

Needs re-creating - in its current form it is stuffed - to have good project management (and project assessment) - you need a way to file all the category pages - either with class=cat, or class NA - and the importance is meant to drop out as a result (although the mining project has both tagged NA and it works) - if anyone here can do it - you need to grab the pick - and fix it (sorry I am no good at that part) and decide that for cats - class=cat or class=NA - and at that point also the importance drops out in that case - cheers - SatuSuro 01:13, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

If I've interpreted your post correctly, you mean that category pages should neither receive an assessment for importance or for class. It would be easy to make the template automatically detect whether it is placed on a category page, and to remove itself from the "unassessed (etc) articles" and "unknown class articles" categories - but I thought I'd best check that was what you meant first! Smith609 Talk 07:45, 20 May 2008 (UTC)