Wikipedia talk:Articles for deletion/Wilpower volcano chain

Deletion
I am also submitting the following related pages for deletion:



Bc1234 (talk) 02:04, 28 March 2011 (UTC)

Reasons to delete the seven Wikipedia pages devoted exclusively to the “Wilpower Volcano Chain” and its members, and the page for the alleged Manitoba volcano “Terry”:

Lack of external references
The two references cited on the main Wilpower page and/or on any of the seven other pages in question (The Wilpower volcano chain: A Late-Tertiary Chain of Volcanoes in Manitoba, Canada and Manitoba's Dormant Volcanoes), the only references available on any of these pages, are broken. The claims of late Tertiary volcanism in Manitoba are not substantiated by a single reference in the peer-reviewed geological and volcanological literature (easily searchable through the popular database Georef, which is accessible through most university libraries), even though there are thousands of research papers published about Manitoba geology and the Canadian Shield. A Google search of the Internet for “Wilpower Volcano Chain” or “Terry volcano Manitoba” yields only the Wikipedia pages, a Facebook page (with no new references), and links to flipkart.com and Amazon.com for a book entitled “Volcanoes Of Manitoba: Wilpower Volcano Chain, Tetroe, Wen, Terr, Heather, Marj, Mary” which is marked as “out of stock”. (Note that Books LLC, the publisher of the above-mentioned book, is a print-on-demand company, suggesting that this book was self-published by the author and has never been subject to peer review.) Also note that none of the alleged volcanoes appears on the Geological Survey of Canada’s Volcanoes of Canada website http://gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/volcanoes/index_e.php (which lists volcanoes that have erupted during the late Tertiary), or on the Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program website http://www.volcano.si.edu/ (which catalogues worldwide Holocene volcano and eruption information). Therefore, the only references supporting the claim that there are Late Tertiary age volcanoes in Manitoba are the Wikipedia pages.
 * The Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program website does not include all volcanoes in Canada that erupted throughout the Holocene. There is evidence that a few volcanoes in the Mount Cayley volcanic field erupted in the past 10,000 years, such as Pali Dome West and Slag Hill. According to volcanologist Catherine Hickson, they were not included on the Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program website because they did not have the information for them when that work was done. I noted the website's webmaster about this quite awhile ago but replied "Unattributed statements on webpages are not in any way sufficient or reliable for GVP. Nothing definitive in the text on those pages anyway, with possibly some small activity barely into the Holocene. As I've said before, when there is something published in a professional journal the status will be re-evaluated. Just like with every other volcano and every paper that talks about eruption dates." What a shame on him. The text on the Geological Survey of Canada’s Volcanoes of Canada website is from those that have done studies on Canadian volcanoes. "With possibly some small activity barely into the Holocene", give it a break. If it's Holocene it should be added on the Global Volcanism Program website. There is volcanoes on that website that have erupted in the early Holocene as well.  Volcano guy  19:44, 28 March 2011 (UTC)

Lack of geological evidence that these features are volcanoes
There is no evidence that petrographic analysis, geochemical analysis, textural analysis, radiometric dating, or geological mapping (at any scale) has ever been conducted for any of these alleged young Manitoba volcanoes. There are not even any outcrop photographs. Since all the photos on Wikipedia are satellite images, there is no evidence that the inventor of these “volcanoes” has even visited these localities.

Geological evidence that these features are almost certainly not volcanoes
It is widely accepted by geologists that Manitoba is underlain in large part by a broad region of Precambrian rock known as the Canadian Shield, and contains many ancient volcanic rocks (hundreds of millions of years old). A few Mesozoic sediments are also present, especially in the southwest, and many areas have a veneer of glacial sediments. No Tertiary volcanoes been identified in Manitoba. The “fracturing of the North American lithosphere” that the main Wilpower page states as the cause of the volcanism has also not been reported in any geological publication. Such fracturing would imply crustal extension similar to that identified in some volcanic areas of British Columbia, and there would be geophysical evidence for higher heat flow, extension-related seismic activity, etc. No such evidence has been reported. Thus, the existence of Tertiary volcanoes in central and southern Manitoba is geologically extremely improbable and would be very noteworthy, however, as mentioned above, not a single peer-reviewed publication to this effect exists. An examination of the 1:250,000 scale bedrock geology maps for Manitoba, which are available on-line (http://www.gov.mb.ca/stem/mrd/geo/gis/geoscimaps.html) reveals no volcanic rocks at any of the Wilpower locations or the Terry location. (Note that all the Wilpower locales appear to fall on either the NTS 1:50,000 scale map 64B/8, or on 64B/1, although the lack of coordinates for some of the entries makes precise location difficult or impossible. “Terry” is probably on one of the 1:50,000 map sheets within 62P or 52M.) This part of Canada is covered in lakes of all sizes and shapes, none of which have ever been identified as volcanoes. Circular and semicircular structures (depressions, rings, lakes, and mounds) are geologically common and need not indicate the presence of a volcano. It is highly probable that these landforms are related to a process that has already been well-documented in Manitoba, such as glaciation (e.g. kettle lakes, differential bedrock erosion), fluvial processes (e.g. anomalously shaped oxbow lakes), or permafrost (e.g. pingoes). (Note that the “Wilpower chain” part of Manitoba is either covered by sporadic discontinuous permafrost (10-50% of the surface is permafrost) or extensive discontinuous permafrost (50-90% of the surface is permafrost), as shown in The Atlas of Canada’s permafrost compilation map: http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/auth/english/maps/environment/land/permafrost, so the possibility of permafrost as a source of circular structures in these parts of Manitoba is plausible.) Regardless, it is geologically extremely improbable that there are Late Tertiary volcanoes in this part of the North American continent, and not supported by any evidence.

Disregard of geographical naming conventions
The only one of the alleged volcanoes’ names that is recognized by the Geographic Names Board of Canada http://geonames.nrcan.gc.ca/info/gnbc_e.php is “Tetroe Lake” (the Atlas of Canada http://atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/index.html records it as a “water feature”). The other “volcano” names are informal and may have been invented by the same person who invented the “Wilpower Volcanic Chain”, and there is no evidence that geographic naming conventions, as outlined by the Geographic Names Board of Canada, were followed. The coordinates for “Terr” match those for a feature which is already officially named “Muskego Lake” in both the Atlas of Canada and the geological map of Manitoba.

A few specific notes about each alleged volcano
Heather: The Wikipedia page gives no coordinates, but Heather can be identified with reasonable certainty from a regional map because of its stated proximity to Tetroe. The geologic map of Manitoba shows the location in question (a small lake) to be underlain by intrusive rocks (granodiorite, tonalite, and granite). No published map or research paper shows volcanic rocks at this location.

Marj: The Wikipedia page gives no coordinates, but its general location can be identified based on the satellite photo provided, which shows what looks like Barnes Lake and Spafford Island, although it is not clear which feature is supposed to be Marj. The geologic map of Manitoba shows the area to be underlain by intrusive rocks (granodiorite, tonalite, and granite). No published map or research paper shows volcanic rocks at this location.

Mary: The Wikipedia page gives no coordinates and no satellite photo, so it is impossible to identify what feature is supposed to be Mary. Assuming it lies in the same general area as the other “volcanoes”, the geologic map of Manitoba shows the region to be underlain by intrusive rocks (granodiorite, tonalite, and granite). No published map or research paper shows volcanic rocks in this region.

Terr: Coordinates for Terr fall on the officially named Muskego Lake. According to the geologic map of Manitoba, this area is covered in greywacke and gneiss (sedimentary and metamorphic rocks). No published map or research paper shows volcanic rocks at this location.

Tetroe: Tetroe Lake is underlain by intrusive rocks (granodiorite, tonalite, and granite) and metamorphic rocks (gneiss and migmatite). No published map or research paper shows volcanic rocks at this location, and the detailed description on the Wikipedia Tetroe page has never been published anywhere else.

Wen: The Wikipedia page gives no coordinates and no satellite photo, so it is impossible to identify what feature is supposed to be Wen. However, given that it is described as the northernmost of the chain and that it probably lies in the same area as the other “volcanoes”, it is probably (based on the geological map of Manitoba) underlain by intrusive rocks (granodiorite, tonalite, granite). No published map or research paper shows volcanic rocks in this region.

Terry: This is the only one of the alleged volcanoes that is not part of the “Wilpower volcano chain”. Its precise location is hard to ascertain, since no coordinates are given and the text states only that it is “near Sasaginnigak Lake”, which places it on the east side of Lake Winnipeg. The geological map of Manitoba shows the area around Sasaginnigak Lake to be underlain by granodiorite, gneiss, and granite. No Tertiary or Holocene volcanic rocks have been mapped in this region. No age is claimed for Terry on the Terry page, however, the table on the Wikipedia page that lists all Canadian volcanoes claims it is Holocene (less than 10,000 years old). If the claims of five “explosive eruptions” and Holocene age were true, we would expect to find correlative ash layers in nearby bogs and swamps in this part of Manitoba, thinning as the distance from Terry increased. There are no reports or publications of such layers.

Summary
There are more than 200 potentially active volcanoes in Canada, all in British Columbia and the Yukon http://gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/volcanoes/index_e.php. The presence on Wikipedia of blatant misinformation about the existence of Late Tertiary volcanoes in Manitoba is inappropriate not only because the information is inaccurate but because it could create concerns about nonexistent volcanic hazards in Manitoba. It is inappropriate to maintain a Wikipedia page that makes such an extraordinary claim without presenting any evidence whatsoever.

Bc1234 (talk) 02:23, 28 March 2011 (UTC)

Associated categories need to be deleted too
First off, what an embarrassment this whole thing is: a series of Wikipedia articles (8 in total), created about a non-existent chain of volcanoes, and which lasted unnoticed for nearly 2 years. Hopefully, they were largely unnoticed by the readership of Wikipedia too, so the misinformation did not get widely read. The author of these articles (User:Volcanoguy) has often stated that he "doesn't give a fuck" about Wikipedia core policies (see User_talk:Volcanoguy/Editnotice for his views), especially WP:NPOV but also clearly WP:V and WP:NOR, and this type of mess is the obvious result.

Anyway, the associated categories were left out of the deletion discussion, and it was closed much too quickly (18 hours!) for me to get around to adding them. So I'm taking the initiative to speedy delete the categories too, since there are no such volcanoes in either of these categories (per CSD):


 * Category:Wilpower volcano chain (does not exist)
 * Category:Volcanoes of Manitoba (which contains only Category:Wilpower volcano chain)

--Seattle Skier (talk) 19:32, 1 April 2011 (UTC)
 * You are full of nonsense Seattle Skier. Me not giving a fuck about Wikipedia has nothing to do with the creation of these articles. I created them simply because I thought the sources were reliable and no I do not have problems with WP:V and WP:NOR. But perhaps you do because you have not given any sources that claim what a "major" volcano is. I have only read your comments, which are not reliable and seem like a bunch of opinionated nonsense.  Volcano guy  21:41, 12 April 2011 (UTC)