Talk:Dark slope streak

Article Revision
I plan to revise this article in light of recent paper in Science (August 5, 2011) on recurrent slope lineae by McEwen et al. Will revise as time permits. Schaffman (talk) 13:56, 14 August 2011 (UTC)

Streaks do not seem to be associated with any particular type of material
This statement is not true in general. The slope streaks occur mainly in regions of high albedo and low thermal inertia, areas typically associated with a lot of dust. This has been known since Viking days (e.g. Ferguson and Lucchitta, 1984). What the streaks are not associated with (apparently) are areas with particular bedrock geology. This is probably what the author meant to say. Schaffman (talk) 12:43, 16 August 2011 (UTC)

Dark slope streaks have been studied since the Mariner and Viking missions
I can find no information that dark slope streaks were identified or studied from Mariner images, even though this is stated in the cited reference. Because of their small size, it's unlikely that they were visible in Mariner 9 photos. Even with Viking, they were only apparent in the relatively few high-resolution (<50 m/pixel) images taken of the planet. Not really a big deal, but it should be corrected. Schaffman (talk) 12:52, 16 August 2011 (UTC)

Several ideas have been advanced to explain the streaks, including water and the growth of organisms
I strongly object to mentioning organisms. The cited reference is a tertiary news source (spiked.com), and the article is tabloid-like in its reportage. The article also refereces a somewhat different phenomenon than the equatorial slope streaks covered here. Schaffman (talk) 13:07, 16 August 2011 (UTC)

Adding new introduction section.
I'm adding a new introductory section, replacing the first two sentences of the article and moving the rest of the text unedited down to a new heading called Morphology and Occurrence. I'm also moving the "need of expert" tag down to beginning of this new section. I will edit and revise the remaining text as time permits. Any comments are welcome. Schaffman (talk) 14:04, 16 August 2011 (UTC)

Removing rest of pre-revision article
I am going to remove the rest of the text that appeared before my revision. Most of what's mentioned I have already covered or plan to cover. I'm also taking out the "need of expert" tag. Though I don't consider myself an expert on slope streaks, I think I have enough information to address the subject adequately. If there are any experts out there, please revise as needed. Schaffman (talk) 13:30, 21 August 2011 (UTC)

See Also: Geysers on Mars
I'm removing this section. Doesn't relate to the topic. Schaffman (talk) 10:28, 24 August 2011 (UTC)

Removing older images from Gallery
I'm going to remove some of the older images from the gallery. They seem to be miscellaneous pictures that just happen to have streaks in them. Schaffman (talk) 20:03, 25 August 2011 (UTC)

Re-done article largely finished.
I've mostly finished this article. I may add some more info and do some minor cleanup and editing as necessary. All comments are welcome. Schaffman (talk) 15:44, 29 August 2011 (UTC)