User:Marie Andry/Magma ocean

Article Evaluation
First Impression of Article:

Magma oceans existed during the early stages of the Earth’s life. This phase can be referred to as accretion, which is the coming together of matter due to gravitational forces imposed from larger bodies. The article credits the radioactive decay of aluminum 26 for molten state of the Earth at that time. The article also states that the energy supplied for the growing of the planets came from large or giant impacts. I do not understand this statement fully and it would be beneficial to expand on it. It also mentions a ‘moon-forming impact’ which has an embedded link to another page and describes how the moon may have been formed by an impact between Earth and a Mars sized planet. Magma oceans are considered very important to the formation of a planet because they establish the planet’s core. The article suggests that the best evidence that magma oceans existed on Earth is the presence of siderophile elements, transition metals that sink to the core, that show previous magma depths of about 1000 kilometers. The article also mentions that a magma ocean occurred on the moon, with an embedded link in the sentence to a page about the lunar magma ocean.

Evaluating Content:

Everything in the article does appear to be relevant to the topic. There is nothing off topic within the article except for the mention of the moon-forming impact and the lunar magma ocean. However, those two mentions may assist in providing context for a better understanding of what magma oceans are and how they come to be. The part in the article that refers to the energy for melting objects coming from large impacts was distracting. This statement should be expanded on more for full understanding of its context and meaning. Three of the sources within the references section are from the early and late 1990’s which could be considered out of date when considering the comparison of the advancement of technology at that time and now. A few things that could be added to the article or improved are examples, artistic renderings of what a magma ocean may look like, and what the consequences or aftereffects of the presence of a magma ocean are. Information such as approximately how long they last, if that kind of information is known, and how they are formed could also be beneficial towards the completion of the article. The scientific information is generally presented clearly throughout the article and no jargon or slang is used. Throughout the article there are also links to other articles in order to give context to what the sentences are referring to. The term ‘accretion’ the phrase ‘moon-forming impact’ and ‘siderophile elements’ are all things within the article that have links to them. These links are helpful because the reader may visit them in order to gain more background knowledge about magma oceans and things related to the topic.

Evaluating Tone:

The tone of the article is somewhat neutral from a reader’s standpoint. It talks a lot about the existence of magma oceans and provides a reference to evidence that magma oceans existed on Earth but does not share any information that counters that position. Also, the article speaks very ‘matter of factly’ when mentioning the existence of magma oceans on the moon as well, with no references to support that claim. The support for the existence of magma oceans is overrepresented while the opposition or alternative is underrepresented.

Evaluating Sources:

All of the links for all of the citations work. They are also all relevant to the information within the article that they are supporting. All of the articles used for references are published as peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals. The sources do not seem to be biased since they are based off of scientific evidence and observations. However, that does not mean they are free from any implicit bias within the literature. Within the article, none of the references have been noted as biased. Three of the sources used in the article appear to be out of date. The outdated sources that are not directly related to magma oceans are 2, 7, and 8. Source number 3 is also appears to be from a very long time ago, but it is directly related to the topic of magma oceans because it provides information about their formation.

Evaluating Talk Page:

There are currently no discussions or anything on the talk page for the article. The article is rated as a stub, meaning that it is available for people to expand upon, and it is part of four wiki projects. These projects include wikiprojects oceans, volcanoes, geology, and articles for creating.