User:Jgrilo3/sandbox

Flared Slopes Draft
A flared slope is a landform consisting in a rock-wall with a smooth transition into a concavity at the foot zone. Flared slopes form due to various weathering patterns that are more effective at the regolith or soil-covered base of rock walls. These landforms are common in granite rocks but occur in other rock types such as ignimbrite found in various geological locations such as Australia, South Africa, and the United States. Flared slopes can be found in a variety of different lithological and climatic environments each with distinct features like that of Wave Rock, a well-studied flared slope.

Formation
The formation of flared slopes vary depending on their location. Some common factors for flared slope weathering and formation are water, rock composition, and the surroundings.

Water
Flared slopes can form when shallow groundwater erodes a rock's base faster than its upper layers exposed above ground. In granite rocks particularly, the subsurface weathering due to groundwater can lead to multiple layers in the rock formation, creating different slopes and concavities within the same structure. This eroding of the lower layer leaves the top of the rock unaffected giving a flared slope profile as the rock is further weathered. Furthermore, runoff can contribute greatly to the distinct features of a flared slope. The various ways water runoff contacts the rock allows for different patterns of erosion and features based on how water flows over the rock. The directional lines seen in many flared slopes indicate water flow over the structure and lead for different colors exposed within each layer the rock.

Rock Composition
Rock composition plays a large roll in how a rock is weathered. Seeing as flared slopes tend to be made of granite, the composition of the rock impacts how the rock will be weathered. The theory of footslopes (a steep, straight slope that is weathered evenly over time) comes from the weathering pattern eroding at a different rate in the middle and lower regions over a long period of time. Loose material and weak areas of the rock allow more impactful weathering causing a slightly retreating concave slope in the middle compared to top and bottom of the rock. Enough iterations of this process leads to a significant concaving of the structure as it erodes father into the rock.

Surroundings
The environment in which a flared slope is located also determines what weathering patterns a flared slope undergoes. External factors that lead to a decrease in moisture and water in a given area of a rock can cause it to weather improperly. Presence of poorly-development flared slopes next to well-developed flared slopes cause them to act as obstacles or blocks that attribute to diverse runoff and weathering patterns. Similarly, certain areas could have concentrated runoff making them moisture deprived and forming inclined bedrock structures instead of flared slopes.

Wave Rock
A classic example of flared slopes is the renowned Wave Rock in Western Australia. Part of a larger inselberg, Hyden Rock, Wave Rock holds many distinct characteristics that make it a target for understanding flared slope formations. Because Wave Rock contains various distinct shapes and curves within its structure, it is thought to have formed from multiple processes, including due to marine erosion, sand blasting, and water erosion. Wave Rock has likely experienced subaerial weathering by rain, frost, and river water. As water flows over the cliff, it carries sediments and chemicals that contribute to weathering of the rock's inner face as the water runs vertically downward. As time progresses, sediments accumulate at the base of the slope and carve a concave shape into the rock, with vertical lines indicating runoff erosion that expose different colors of the granite.

Content
After reading through the current Wikipedia page the content present is a good few sentence description of what a flared slope is. It discussed its meaning and the potential origins of the formations in a simplified manner and included hyperlinks to additional terms. References associated with the article are a bit outdated with one from 1986 and one from 2014. While the 2014 one is not too old, having fresh resources could be beneficial to a more thorough explanation of flared slopes. Some things to be explored about this topic would be the areas that the flared slopes are found. Having an idea of where they are found and what specific climate they are in would be helpful to visualize the area that these unique weathering events occur. A final note would be about the scientific information. There are plenty of facts to help summarize what the topic is but including more details would be key for the readers.

Tone
The articles tone is strictly informative and scientific in nature. They do not add in bias based on the current writing and do not show any leaning positions

Source
Checking the references they do not have any direct links to the article which when editing I will seek to change. The references to the articles are well placed and match with all the facts in the article. The information comes from two sources "Erosion Surface and Granitic Morphology in the Sierra de Lihuel Calel, Province of La Pampa, Argentina" and "Flared slopes revisited".

Talk Page

This article has no talk page elements to it. I seek to add to the talk pages and further edit the flared slopes article adding more available information.

Talk Page Addition

Hello, my name is John and I have been tasked with reviewing and editing the Flared Slopes Wikipedia article. After reviewing the content of this page I have to say I thought it was very great for giving a brief description of the topic. I would also like to say that it would be a good idea to expand upon the knowledge already presented in the article such as the causes of flared slopes and the locations of many of these natural occurrences. Throughout the coming month, I will be attempting to further supply information that will bolster this article's simple description of flared slopes through the use of new sources and additional research seeing as how there are only two seemingly outdated articles to reference. --Jgrilo3 (talk) 18:55, 4 March 2021 (UTC)Jgrilo3