Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Geology/Archive 1

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 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: Solarapex 04:32, 13 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Bring/move the discussions under 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.

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? 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-man  talk ¢ 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-man  talk ¢ 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 Peak, 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, Physiographic divisions, Physiographic provinces and 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 undefinedTalk 18:30, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

Help needed with problem user
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 WikiProject Council/Proposals. Evolauxia 06:41, 9 June 2007 (UTC)

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. 06:26, 11 June 2007 (UTC)

Geology-stub subcats
I'm having another go at reducing the size of ; 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 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. Sandy Georgia (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)

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". 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. parameter, but forget to give a link to their alert page. Your alert page should be located at "Wikipedia:PROJECT-OR-TASKFORCE-HOMEPAGE/Article alerts". Questions and feedback should be left at Wikipedia talk:Article alerts.

Message sent by User:Addbot to all active wiki projects per request, Comments on the message and bot are welcome here.

Thanks. — Headbomb {{{sup|ταλκ}}κοντριβς – WP Physics} 09:11, 15 March, 2009 (UTC)


 * This looks useful, so I'm going to sign us up. If anyone opposes, they may freely delete the template I place on the main page without hurting my feelings. Awickert (talk) 05:30, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Expanding Earth RFC
There has recently been a debate on the inclusion of the Expanding Earth hypothesis in four articles, Talk:Expanding Earth, Talk:Ganymede (moon), Talk:Mantle (geology), and Talk:Subduction. I was advised to initiate a request for comment, which is at Talk:Expanding Earth. Any comments there would be appreciated - thanks. Awickert (talk) 05:18, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Workgroup
I've opened a workgroup to get an FT for Hawaiian volcanism. In dire need of members! ResMar 14:41, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
 * I'll be on standby to help out with general volcanology/geomorphology/ignous petrology, but my knowledge of Hawaii is about zilch. I'll head over to your page and sign up. Awickert (talk) 05:47, 15 April 2009 (UTC)

Geology watchlist
I saw that some other WikiProjects have project-wide watchlists; would anyone be interested in this? If so, I'll figure out how to make one and do it. Awickert (talk) 05:44, 15 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Looks like lack of interest - won't do it. Awickert (talk) 04:21, 25 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Take a look at 4 days of Geology changes Graeme Bartlett (talk) 12:47, 27 April 2009 (UTC)
 * That link didn't work for me - what's wrong with the WP Geology Recent Changes page? Mikenorton (talk) 13:59, 27 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Huh - I tried for a while to find a page like that, but couldn't. OK - nevermind, sorry for the confusion. Awickert (talk) 16:32, 27 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Sorry I took so long to comment, I meant to do it when you first posted. The link to it is cunningly concealed on the project page in the 'Open tasks and guidelines' section (it took me long enough to find it just now and I knew it was there somewhere). Mikenorton (talk) 16:57, 27 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Wow. Maybe I'll move it to a more visible spot. Thanks again. Awickert (talk) 20:54, 27 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I think it's such a useful tool (stops your watchlist getting ridiculously obese) and deserves greater prominence. Mikenorton (talk) 21:05, 27 April 2009 (UTC)
 * ✅ done. Awickert (talk) 21:33, 27 April 2009 (UTC)

Strange controversy
At talk:List of scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of global warming, user:KimDabelsteinPetersen is insisting that the minute a person dies, he or she must be removed from this list, since dead people have no opinions. Michael Hardy (talk) 20:54, 21 May 2009 (UTC)

Nash–Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficient
Nash–Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficient is a nearly orphaned article. Can anyone add appropriate links to it from other articles and add it to any appropriate topics lists? Michael Hardy (talk) 16:24, 23 May 2009 (UTC)

Geological formation infobox?
I know about Infobox Rockunit, but I was looking for a more generic geological formation infobox that could be used in such articles as Hoodoo (geology). Would anyone be interested in creating one? ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 22:31, 20 April 2009 (UTC)
 * What sort of thing are you interested in - geomorphic feature? Awickert (talk) 04:24, 25 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Something more generic which could be used for features such as the hoodoos, cold water geysers (such as Crystal Geyser), arches (such as Delicate Arch), etc., which aren't necessarily in only one location and which aren't already covered by another more specific infobox. I don't now all the technical words, but I think an infobox would be beneficial if it could be created in such a way as to be able to be used for these neglected geological features. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 05:36, 25 April 2009 (UTC)
 * I think "Geologic feature" sounds like a great name for it. First, we'd need to decide if it should be an infobox for the geologic feautres in general (hoodoo, arch, tafoni, geyser, lava tube) or for specific geographic occurrences. If the former, I'd suggest creating an infobox called at Template:Geologic feature. If the latter, we could add "geologic feature" as a category for the geobox, with a number of related fields. What were you thinking? Either way, I'd be happy to help. Awickert (talk) 19:49, 25 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Well, hot water geysers already use Infobox hot spring, so they wouldn't be covered here. Cold water geysers would be covered, however. I think Infobox geologic feature sounds good. It may be good to do some sort of survey of geology articles to find out which geologic features don't already have related infoboxes, and then create one which can be used for them. As I am not really familiar with this area, I'm not sure where to begin on that. Anyone have any ideas? ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 06:47, 27 April 2009 (UTC)
 * OK - it sounds like you're thinking more the general features, then. I took a look, and Infobox geologic feature would be good. I've never created an infobox, though, so if you want me to do it, you'll probably have to wait a week or two until I have enough time. Awickert (talk) 16:36, 27 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Not a problem. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 17:32, 27 April 2009 (UTC)
 * All right - you'll hear from me in a while, then. Awickert (talk) 20:32, 27 April 2009 (UTC)
 * Just checking back with you on this as it's been about a month. No hurries, just looking to see where this might be on your schedule. :) ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 22:29, 25 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Right, sorry, been busy and completely forgot about it. I will try to do it ASAP, ping me at my talk; I don't mind being bugged, just bad memory. Awickert (talk) 00:45, 26 May 2009 (UTC)
 * No problem. ··· 日本穣 ? · Talk to Nihonjoe 02:42, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

Geology of solar terrestrial planets GA Sweeps: On Hold
I have reviewed Geology of solar terrestrial planets for GA Sweeps to determine if it still qualifies as a Good Article. In reviewing the article I have found several issues, which I have detailed here. Since the article falls under the scope of this project, I figured you would be interested in contributing to further improve the article. Please comment there to help the article maintain its GA status. If you have any questions, let me know on my talk page and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. --Happy editing! Nehrams2020 (talk • contrib) 02:54, 30 May 2009 (UTC)

Alum shale
The alum shale article needs expert attention.Beagel (talk) 09:45, 30 May 2009 (UTC)


 * Seems the original author intended the article to be about the specific English geologic formation Alum Shale hence the capitalization and infobox. Your revisions make it about a general type of shale which is mined for uranium in Scandinavia, but retains the infobox and formation specific paleo info. So... do we need to lose the infobox and keep it as a general rock type article ... or make a dablink to the specific formation stub? Is the Scandinavian shale stratigraphically equivalent to the Alum Shale? Vsmith (talk) 14:03, 30 May 2009 (UTC)
 * The Alum Shale in Scandinavia is Upper Cambrian while that in England is Toarcian (Lower Jurassic), so not the same thing at all. There is probably need for a general article on 'alum shales' including these two specific examples (and any others) for now. With enough content they may eventually form their own articles but keep it all as one for now, rather than creating three separate stubs, IMO. Mikenorton (talk) 14:12, 30 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Keep them separate, they're really two separate things. The DAB link is the way to go. Abyssal (talk) 14:23, 30 May 2009 (UTC)

Featured picture nomination of "Hawaii bathymetry"
File:Bathymetry image of the Hawaiian archipelago.png is being reviewed for Featured Picture status at Featured picture candidates/Hawaii Bathymetry. Any feedback would be appreciated, but be sure to familiarize yourself with the featured picture criteria before reviewing the photo. This image is featured in Hawaii hotspot, which is part of the scope of WikiProject Geology. -- ErgoSum • talk • trib  21:17, 12 June 2009 (UTC)

GA Reassessment of Asteroid
I have done a GA Reassessment of the article, Asteroid as part of the GA Sweeps project. I have found that the article does not meet the current GA Criteria. As such I have held the article for a week pending fixes. My review can be found here. I am notifying all interested projects about this. If you have any questions please contact me on my talk page. H1nkles (talk) 22:11, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

GAR reassessment of History of the Earth
This review is part of WikiProject Good articles/Project quality task force/Sweeps, a project devoted to re-reviewing Good Articles listed before August 26, 2007. History of the Earth has been reassessed, see discussion, and will be placed on hold until issues can be addressed. If an editor does not express interest in addressing these issues within seven days, the article will be delisted.-- ErgoSum • talk • trib  17:55, 28 June 2009 (UTC)

please help me turn this stub into an article
Superficial Deposits I have inserted some non copyright info could somone help me?
 * Yes, I will when I get to it; bug me if it isn't soon enough. Awickert (talk) 08:05, 29 July 2009 (UTC)

Peak oil GA Sweeps: On Hold
I have reviewed Peak oil for GA Sweeps to determine if it still qualifies as a Good Article. In reviewing the article I have found several issues, which I have detailed here. Since the article falls under the scope of this project, I figured you would be interested in contributing to further improve the article. Please comment there to help the article maintain its GA status. If you have any questions, let me know on my talk page and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. --Happy editing! Nehrams2020 (talk • contrib) 01:55, 11 July 2009 (UTC)

Cryptospores
I have attempted to de-orphan the article Cryptospores by adding links to it from the pages Spores, Paleobotany, and Evolutionary history of plants. The page Fossils also links to Cryptospores. I would appreciate it if someone would review these edits and work them in a more appropriate manner if necessary. Thanks, --Sophitessa (talk) 06:03, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Andrew long
FYI Andrew long Australian Geophysiscist is up for deletion at Articles for deletion/Andrew long. Rock on. (pun intended)--kelapstick (talk) 20:38, 8 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the notice, I will review. Awickert (talk) 01:57, 9 August 2009 (UTC)

Impact crater articles sorted, CFD for Cat:Astroblemes
I made a proposal to merge Category:Astroblemes into Category:Craters on Earth. See Categories for discussion/Log/2009 August 16. The two categories Category:Craters on Earth and Category:Astroblemes had been used by different volunteers to construct nearly-disjoint sets of impact craters on Earth. Category:Craters on Earth was eventually clarified to be for only impact craters and structures, not volcanic or explosives origins. So that made the two categories effectively the same definition. Neither were complete. It's a lot closer to complete now with a reorg that sorted the members of each into mutual subcats Category:Earth Impact Database and Category:possible craters. I also went through the crater articles and added the Impact cratering on Earth navbox, and added confirmed craters to the navbox. Ikluft (talk) 23:59, 16 August 2009 (UTC)


 * I was under the impression that the Earth was not the only location in the universe to have impact craters... 76.66.192.144 (talk) 05:11, 17 August 2009 (UTC)
 * There is also a Category:Craters for that. Category:Astroblemes was very clearly being used just for impact structures and craters on Earth even before I began sorting articles between subcats for confirmed and possible. Ikluft (talk) 05:15, 17 August 2009 (UTC)

FYI - Category:Earth Impact Database fully populated
It looks like a number of volunteers have been adding articles for craters listed in the Earth Impact Database over the past 5 years. I've populated Category:Earth Impact Database with all the entries from that database. 176 total currently confirmed craters, minus one since the Clearwater Lakes article covers both Clearwater East and West craters, and plus two for the Earth Impact Database article and citation template. So that matches the total of 177 entries in the category. All the articles use Earth Impact Database as a citation via the Cite Earth Impact DB template, which automatically adds them to the category. I made sure all the articles listed in this category contain the Impact cratering on Earth navbox. I only had to create 2 articles (Dhala crater in India and Whitecourt crater in Canada) recently, plus one more article I created a year ago after visiting the newly-listed site (Santa Fe impact structure in the USA). But all of the articles got at least an edit to add the templates for a more organized presentation of the subject. Going forward, we need to keep this up as sites are added to the database. Ikluft (talk) 08:38, 20 August 2009 (UTC)

Opinions on renaming categories with "craters" to "impact craters"?
In the CFD to merge Cat:Astroblemes into Cat:Craters on Earth, it was suggested that "Cat:Craters on Earth" should itself be renamed "Cat:Impact craters on Earth". Earlier this year the definition had been settled (with instructions in the category text) as being just impact craters, that would be consistent with the purpose of the category. There's a big side effect of this - it's really renaming a whole tree of categories similarly "Cat:Craters..." to "Cat:Impact craters..." etc. I did a search and counted 76 categories would be involved as follows:
 * Category:Carboniferous craters => Category:Carboniferous impact craters
 * Category:Craters => Category:Impact craters
 * Category:Craters by country => Category:Impact craters by country
 * Category:Craters by geologic time scale => Category:Impact craters by geologic time scale
 * Category:Craters by region => Category:Impact craters by region
 * Category:Craters of Africa => Category:Impact craters of Africa
 * Category:Craters of Alberta => Category:Impact craters of Alberta
 * Category:Craters of Algeria => Category:Impact craters of Algeria
 * Category:Craters of Argentina => Category:Impact craters of Argentina
 * Category:Craters of Asia => Category:Impact craters of Asia
 * Category:Craters of Australia => Category:Impact craters of Australia
 * Category:Craters of Belarus => Category:Impact craters of Belarus
 * Category:Craters of Botswana => Category:Impact craters of Botswana
 * Category:Craters of Brazil => Category:Impact craters of Brazil
 * Category:Craters of Canada => Category:Impact craters of Canada
 * Category:Craters of Chad => Category:Impact craters of Chad
 * Category:Craters of Chile => Category:Impact craters of Chile
 * Category:Craters of Egypt => Category:Impact craters of Egypt
 * Category:Craters of Estonia => Category:Impact craters of Estonia
 * Category:Craters of Europe => Category:Impact craters of Europe
 * Category:Craters of Finland => Category:Impact craters of Finland
 * Category:Craters of France => Category:Impact craters of France
 * Category:Craters of Germany => Category:Impact craters of Germany
 * Category:Craters of Ghana => Category:Impact craters of Ghana
 * Category:Craters of India => Category:Impact craters of India
 * Category:Craters of Israel => Category:Impact craters of Israel
 * Category:Craters of Kazakhstan => Category:Impact craters of Kazakhstan
 * Category:Craters of Latvia => Category:Impact craters of Latvia
 * Category:Craters of Libya => Category:Impact craters of Libya
 * Category:Craters of Lithuania => Category:Impact craters of Lithuania
 * Category:Craters of Manitoba => Category:Impact craters of Manitoba
 * Category:Craters of Mauritania => Category:Impact craters of Mauritania
 * Category:Craters of Mexico => Category:Impact craters of Mexico
 * Category:Craters of Mongolia => Category:Impact craters of Mongolia
 * Category:Craters of Namibia => Category:Impact craters of Namibia
 * Category:Craters of North America => Category:Impact craters of North America
 * Category:Craters of Norway => Category:Impact craters of Norway
 * Category:Craters of Ontario => Category:Impact craters of Ontario
 * Category:Craters of Panama => Category:Impact craters of Panama
 * Category:Craters of Poland => Category:Impact craters of Poland
 * Category:Craters of Quebec => Category:Impact craters of Quebec
 * Category:Craters of Russia => Category:Impact craters of Russia
 * Category:Craters of Saskatchewan => Category:Impact craters of Saskatchewan
 * Category:Craters of Saudi Arabia => Category:Impact craters of Saudi Arabia
 * Category:Craters of South Africa => Category:Impact craters of South Africa
 * Category:Craters of South America => Category:Impact craters of South America
 * Category:Craters of Sweden => Category:Impact craters of Sweden
 * Category:Craters of Tajikistan => Category:Impact craters of Tajikistan
 * Category:Craters of Tanzania => Category:Impact craters of Tanzania
 * Category:Craters of the Arctic => Category:Impact craters of the Arctic
 * Category:Craters of the United States => Category:Impact craters of the United States
 * Category:Craters of Ukraine => Category:Impact craters of Ukraine
 * Category:Craters on Earth => Category:Impact craters on Earth
 * Category:Craters on Enceladus => Category:Impact craters on Enceladus
 * Category:Craters on Ganymede => Category:Impact craters on Ganymede
 * Category:Craters on Jupiter's moons => Category:Impact craters on Jupiter's moons
 * Category:Craters on Mars => Category:Impact craters on Mars
 * Category:Craters on Mercury => Category:Impact craters on Mercury
 * Category:Craters on Saturn's moons => Category:Impact craters on Saturn's moons
 * Category:Craters on the Moon => Category:Impact craters on the Moon
 * Category:Craters on Venus => Category:Impact craters on Venus
 * Category:Cretaceous craters => Category:Cretaceous impact craters
 * Category:Devonian craters => Category:Devonian impact craters
 * Category:Eocene craters => Category:Eocene impact craters
 * Category:Holocene craters => Category:Holocene impact craters
 * Category:Jurassic craters => Category:Jurassic impact craters
 * Category:Lists of craters => Category:Lists of impact craters
 * Category:Lists of craters on the Moon => Category:Lists of impact craters on the Moon
 * Category:Ordovician craters => Category:Ordovician impact craters
 * Category:Paleocene craters => Category:Paleocene impact craters
 * Category:Permian craters => Category:Permian impact craters
 * Category:Pleistocene craters => Category:Pleistocene impact craters
 * Category:Possible craters => Category:Possible impact craters
 * Category:Proterozoic craters => Category:Proterozoic impact craters
 * Category:Silurian craters => Category:Silurian impact craters
 * Category:Triassic craters => Category:Triassic impact craters

My take on this: Pro: clearer names, less confusion. Con: 76 of them. What do people think? Ikluft (talk) 14:09, 21 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Making the category name consistent with the criteria for membership is a good thing, and should be done. As to the number of cats, this shouldn't be a problem. Nominate them all as a group, if the renaming is agreed a bot does the physical work of actually moving the articles into the new cats. DuncanHill (talk) 14:17, 21 August 2009 (UTC)
 * OK, that seems to be the only word on it all day. I figured it wouldn't be controversial for that reason, at least with the geology interests.  I'm also interested to hear what the astronomy interests think of "Cat:Craters on the Moon" turning to "Cat:Impact craters on the Moon", etc.  (I CC'ed the notice on WT:AST pointing here.)  But that's also acceptable discussion for the CFD for anyone who doesn't get a comment in before it starts. Ikluft (talk) 02:04, 22 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Certainly sounds good... hopefully the exocraters catalogued in the categories are all impact craters... as I think volcanic craters have been found on Venus, and definitely on Mars... 76.66.192.144 (talk) 06:59, 22 August 2009 (UTC)
 * With a cursory inspection, it looks like Category:Volcanoes of Mars and Category:Volcanoes of Venus have that covered. The category text can help clarify which one to use too. Ikluft (talk) 07:33, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

FYI - proposed renaming for Category:Craters hierarchy of 76 impact crater-related categories
FYI - see the CFR renaming discussion. Ikluft (talk) 09:33, 22 August 2009 (UTC)
 * ✅ As you can see from the redlinked categories above, the renaming succeeded. Thank you to everyone who participated. Ikluft (talk) 23:03, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

Request third opinion
To prevent a potential edit war on the article Solid, I am asking the project members to vote here. Thank you. Materialscientist (talk) 01:26, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

CFR to add "on Earth" to Category:Impact craters by geologic time scale and Category:Impact craters by region
Two category renaming proposals were made which I think are completely unnecessary. One proposes to rename Category:Impact craters by geologic time scale to Category:Impact craters on Earth by geologic time scale. (See the CFR.) The other proposes to rename Category:Impact craters by region to Category:Impact craters on Earth by region. (See the CFR.) Both topics already imply that they're on Earth. There is no potential for subcategories about alternatives off Earth in either case. Please comment on the CFRs to prevent unnecessary lengthening of the category names. Ikluft (talk) 20:25, 18 September 2009 (UTC)
 * There is a possibility for renaming to make Category:Impact craters by geologic time scale consistent with Category:Volcanism by geochronology. I'm not sure that "by geochronology" is necessarily the best choice - it isn't a bad one.  But one way or another making them consistent among each other makes more sense than the current proposal. Ikluft (talk) 20:25, 18 September 2009 (UTC)

"Category:Impact craters on Earth by geologic time scale" & "Category:Impact craters on Earth by region" were emptied
Category:Impact craters on Earth by geologic time scale & Category:Impact craters on Earth by region were emptied, recently. This appears to be out of process since there's a message at WP:CFD saying that categories should not be emptied, but should be nominated for deletion before being emptied. The contents appear to have been dumped into the parent category, Category:Impact craters on Earth.

Do these category matter to you, or is it not a useful categorization? I will note that at a recent CfD discussion on the matter, no one voted to delete the categories in question.

76.66.197.30 (talk) 09:34, 1 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I see no reason to have such categories. If the age of an impact matters the category about that age is sufficient. If the region of the impact matters the category about that region is sufficient. Woodwalker (talk) 11:47, 1 October 2009 (UTC)
 * So does that mean that Category:Impact craters by country, Category:Impact craters of the Arctic, Category:Impact craters of Africa etc, and Category:Holocene impact craters etc, should be deleted (If I'm reading you right, it does)? Since they are the former inhabitants of the categories I mentioned in the lede. 76.66.197.30 (talk) 15:12, 1 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I don't think that is what he means. I believe that Woodwalker was speaking about the intermediate categories, not the final ones.  The intermediate categories Category:Impact craters on Earth by geologic time scale & Category:Impact craters on Earth by region are only useful because they organize the others, and prevent the list of subcategories at Category:Impact craters on Earth from becoming confusing.  Mixing regions and countries and geologic periods together alphabetically in the same list is seldom as useful as a hierarchical listing. --Bejnar (talk) 23:02, 1 October 2009 (UTC)

Mount Fuji Memorial Collaboration
As published in the most recent Signpost, Wikipedian Fg2 has passed away. As a memorial for him, a group of editors has chosen to collaborate on his beloved Mount Fuji article to improve it towards featured article status. The expertise of this project's members would be much welcome in the Geology section of that article. Please consider. Thanks. - Draeco (talk) 01:53, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

New stub type relevant to this project
Hi all - thought i'd give you the heads-up that a new stub type has been created relevant to this project: Palaeogeography-stub (with redirects from botht he US spelling and from palaeo-geo-stub). This is for historical/prehistoric geographical features and locations, e.g., Wealden Lake, Zealandia. Hope it is useful to you.

BTW, there seems to be a mismatch between the name of the parent article (Palaeogeography), and its category which you might wish to discuss. The stub category has been made with a name to agree with the article - if this is incorrect, please propose it for renaming at WP:SFD.

Cheers, Grutness...wha?  00:58, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

resource for British Columbia geology
It occurred to me last night that, among others out there, for anyone doing Canadian geology articles regarding anything in British Columbia, and sometimes relating to adjoining states and territories/province, the MINFILE system from the BC Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources, documents geological research analysis connected with pretty much all of BC's landscape; anywhere there's mines or been mineral exploitation. Sometimes information attached to a mine may be useful for the entire region it's in, and most make mention of geological belts and terranes and more. Don't have a link handy, and there's different kinds of reports; the easiest thing to do is google "MINFILE [placename]" where placename=mountain, river, canyon etc as well as the name of a mine or a region, and whatever you're looking for is out there, often in considerable detail. There's a similar site, with bizarrely excellent, geology maps from the Yukon government also, can't remember exactly where they are, been years since I looked at them; they're frustrating because they have no contour information, only analysis of mineral belts. Anwway, hope that's useful; there's other geology resources there, probably a lot to do with the new gas fields in the Central Interior (or hoped-for gasfields) and prep for planned-but-political offshore drilling. All of BC's mountain ranges and mountains and plateaus, canyons likewise; there's no article yet on many terranes/landforms, and some like Fraser Delta/Fraser Lowland (too different items, the former part of the latter, which is part of the Georgia Depression, which is part of the Coastal Trough etc; link for a map showing all of these later....) once created could use solid geology in their content, as with other landforms (User:Black Tusk has done a lot of work on volcanoes. I'm impressed by the range of much content on US-side geographic/geologic articles; north of the border could use some attention; I just dno't have the time, and it's not really my field....Skookum1 (talk) 21:49, 19 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Yes. This is something that has been going on for some time. I have started some stubs about BC faults (e.g. Queen Charlotte Fault, Tintina Fault, Denali Fault) and terranes (e.g. Stikinia) since 2007 and I will continue to create more, but it would be nice if the lack of contributions on Canadian geology articles would end. Canadian geology is broader than US geology and there is lots to work on, including the formation of new articles. I have been contributing to Canadian volcanology and related geology/geography since 2006, but I have not seen too much improvments to them either except for my own of course. There is tons of geological information (50+ kilobytes) in my system about the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province with pics and maps that I am going to recreate the article with when I am done. Also, the Northern Cordilleran Volcanic Province is the most recently defined volcanic province in the Western Cordillera of North America. BT (talk) 23:18, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

Requested article: Josephinite
Hi there, I'd like to request an article on the interesting mineral josephinite. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.129.128.125 (talk) 22:24, 21 October 2009 (UTC)


 * According to Mindat it is a synonym of Awaruite. And we don't have that article either. Vsmith (talk) 02:05, 22 October 2009 (UTC)


 * There seems to be some doubt about that, at least in the paper I was glancing at (http://www.terrapub.co.jp/journals/GJ/pdf/1302/13020041.PDF), which leads off with: "Josephinite had been thought to be the same as the metallic nickel-iron mineral awaruite (KRISHNARAO,1962, 1964; RAMDOHR, 1950), but ..." (my emphasis). 86.133.245.63 (talk) 02:58, 22 October 2009 (UTC).

Requested Article: Sunda megathrust
This seems to be a valid term, and a very notable fault line, so I was surprised there was no article on it. I started to make a stub for it, but I generally avoid trying to deal with scientific articles as they just are not my forte. I did, however, find 11 reliable sources within just a few moments of searching that seem to support its validity. Would anyone be interested and willing to taking my very meager start and creating a full article on it? -- AnmaFinotera  (talk · contribs) 08:06, 4 November 2009 (UTC)


 * OK, I'm prepared to have a go at that, it is one of the most seismogenic structures on earth after all. Article construction started at User:Mikenorton/Sandbox. Mikenorton (talk) 10:02, 4 November 2009 (UTC)


 * Awesome, thanks! Look forward to seeing it :) -- AnmaFinotera  (talk · contribs) 23:54, 4 November 2009 (UTC)


 * It's out there now. Mikenorton (talk) 20:38, 5 November 2009 (UTC)

Way Up Structure vs. Geopetal
We are having a friendly debate over the use and meaning of way up structure vs. geopetal vs. any other term to determine the direction of younging in strata. Any input on this topic (the main part of the debate is here) would be appreciated. Apparently, some people use way up and only use geopetal for void-filled bubble, and others only use geopetal, and do not use way up. The more geologists to comment, so we can get to the bottom of this, the better! —Preceding unsigned comment added by Qfl247 (talk • contribs) 16:47, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

Requested article: FRGOK
I've put in a request for the article FRGOK: "Geologists have a category of rock called FRGOK, pronounced fergock, meaning, Funny Rock, God Only Knows, which is used enough to occasionally make it into their scholarly journals. (Would that all scientists were so humble.)" Anne Herbert, The Next Whole Earth Catalog. Quoted at http://davidlavery.net/Imaginative_Thinker/quotes/hquotes/humility.htm. This looks like silly humor or hoax, but Ms Herbert doesn't normally do that. Is there anything to this? -- Writtenonsand (talk) 15:06, 7 November 2009 (UTC)


 * See our article on Fubarite, maybe it could be added to that stub. Mikenorton (talk) 15:21, 7 November 2009 (UTC)


 * (ec) Well, why not FRDK for "funny rock, don't know", or any number of other silly acronyms expressing ignorance or lack of reason to investigate further right now. How 'bout "leaverite" short for "that's a messed up sample, leave it right there, don't wanna think about it" (wow, that one already has an article!). Don't think we need any such articles. Vsmith (talk) 15:28, 7 November 2009 (UTC)
 * Maybe merge 'em all into Geological slang... Vsmith (talk) 15:32, 7 November 2009 (UTC)


 * I hope that I made clear that I'm interested in the term FRGOK just because I see that a source not otherwise AFAIK given to silly humor claimed that the term "occasionally makes into scholarly journals", and that I'm inquiring whether that's true or not. If this term is not semi-officially used by geologists, then of course we don't want to include it on Wikipedia. If the term FRDK is used, then it might be worth having a mention of that somewhere on Wikipedia. "Merging all" into Geological slang or some similar article would work fine for me. (I also see trashite mentioned in Leaverite.) Thanks. -- Writtenonsand (talk) 18:16, 8 November 2009 (UTC)

GeoWhen Database URL change
Hello Colleagues. The GeoWhen Database is now http://www.stratigraphy.org/bak/geowhen/index.html. I don't know how to change it in the box on the right showing resources. I'm sure someone here can do it! Thanks. Wilson44691 (talk) 18:38, 7 November 2009 (UTC)


 * ✅ Mikenorton (talk) 23:22, 7 November 2009 (UTC)

Playa and a CfD discussion
There is a discussion to move Category:Salt pans. I think we need some expert help there. The problem goes back to what is the best name. Based on articles, everything seems to have been combined into playa saying that alkali flats, sabkhas, dry lakes and mud flats are all the same thing. If the surface is primarily salt then they are called salt pans, salt lakes or salt flats. However in past discussions it was stated that these are in fact not all the same. The category move discussion needs some help on this. I suspect that while playa is not assessed by this project, it probably needs some looking at with the possibility of renaming or splitting. So, it you can sort this out, please join the discussion linked above. Vegaswikian (talk) 09:12, 20 November 2009 (UTC)


 * A proposal has been made to move Playa (disambiguation) to Playa; discussion is here.  --Una Smith (talk) 02:40, 6 December 2009 (UTC)

Articles_for_deletion/Philip_R._Bjork
"Professor Philip R. Bjork is an American geologist and paleontologist. He was the director of the Museum of Geology at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City from 1975 to 2000. His academic focus was in Cretaceous dinosaurs, and mammals from the Cretaceous and early Cainozoic."

FYI. I didn't see that you had deletion sorting page, and couldn't figure out how to use the article sorting.... Ikip (talk) 19:34, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

Global Network for the Forecasting of Earthquakes
I am considering proposing this article for deletion. To quote my comment on the talk page,
 * "The references used in this article appear to be almost entirely self-published. I can find nothing in the peer-reviewed literature about GNFE. I'm wondering if this article should be on Wikipedia before there is some sort of independent view on the claimed effectiveness of the method. So far it seems to be just two scientists (Khalilov & Khain) pushing this idea. WOSCO, GNFE, SWB and IAS H&E all seem to be essentially the same group of people. My perception that this is all just self-promotion may be entirely wrong, but I think you need to include some sources (and not just a few news reports) that are not connected to this group of organisations."

Before I take the step of going to WP:AfD with this, I would appreciate other people's views on the article. Mikenorton (talk) 15:21, 3 December 2009 (UTC)

Global warming: proposal for discretionary sanctions
At Administrators' noticeboard/Climate Change there is an ongoing discussion of a proposed measure to encourage administrators to enforce policy more strictly on articles related to climate change. I'm placing this notification here because global warming is a member of this WikiProject. It doesn't belong on the main WikiProject page because it's a user conduct matter and isn't really on topic there. --TS 13:29, 1 January 2010 (UTC)

Bystrite
Anyone knowledgeable able to clean this up? Casliber (talk · contribs) 03:52, 6 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Whacked it a bit... Vsmith (talk) 18:27, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

Also Chergach meteorite needs cleanup :) Casliber (talk · contribs) 03:59, 6 January 2010 (UTC)

Cirque
Are any of you guys watching the cirque article. I seem to remember that there are erosion cirques in Karst landscapes and Alpine cirques- I have left comments on the talk page there. Unusually it was an article I referred to for as a reader rather than one I had intended to edit. --ClemRutter (talk) 09:33, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Ah, I am watching the article now. I don't know about karst landscapes... the term may apply (I'll check a geological dictionary), but I've only ever heard it used for overdeepened semi-circular glacial valleys. Awickert (talk) 15:20, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

Coal in South Africa
Any geology buffs around that can assist in expanding Coal in South Africa? Specifically how coal deposits were formed in the Karoo Supergroup and the physical properties of the coal today. --NJR_ZA (talk) 08:00, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

Manual alert - John Baird Simpson
John Baird Simpson has just appeared. Although non-encyclopedic in tone, poorly wikified and probably written by an editor with a COI, it may have potential if the subject meets notability guidlelines. I wasn't sure what these might be in geological circles. If so inspired, you will know what to do. Ben  Mac  Dui  14:04, 15 January 2010 (UTC)

Dead USGS links
Two of the USGS reports for the 2010 Haiti earthquake are dead. I'm not too familiar with the way the USGS archives their information and I'm hoping someone can assist in replacing the dead links shown here. Thanks in advance. --Moni3 (talk) 15:35, 21 January 2010 (UTC)
 * I've had problems with USGS links on some Antarctic geo-stubs I made. Althought the links were working when made, and I checked and re-checked them against the guidance on the USGS site for linking, they no longer work. i'll add that USGS is not an easy site to link to at the best of times, one has to juggle about the URL rather than using whatever appears in your browser's address bar. DuncanHill (talk) 16:00, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

WP 1.0 bot announcement
This message is being sent to each WikiProject that participates in the WP 1.0 assessment system. On Saturday, January 23, 2010, the WP 1.0 bot will be upgraded. Your project does not need to take any action, but the appearance of your project's summary table will change. The upgrade will make many new, optional features available to all WikiProjects. Additional information is available at the WP 1.0 project homepage. &mdash; Carl (CBM · talk) 03:21, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

Mountain formation
It would seem from the introductory definition of the article Orogeny: (Orogeny (Greek for "mountain generating") refers to natural mountain building) that this article has something to do with mountain formation. However, if so, this objective is entirely lost sight of in this article. In fact, this article gives the impression that mountain formation is irrelevant: "An orogen is different from a mountain range in that an orogen may be almost completely eroded away, and only recognizable by studying (old) rocks that bear traces of orogenesis."

All this is unfortunate as mountain formation is far more of general interest than suggested by orogeny, a technical term probably known to no-one but a specialist.

It would be nice if some article on Mountain formation could be mounted that might connect the many articles related to this topic of common interest. Brews ohare (talk) 19:39, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

I added a sentence to Orogeny to direct attention to the subject matter of orogenesis. I also created a redirect from Mountain formation to Orogeny. Unfortunately, this article is not satisfactory in this regard, but there seems to be no other. Brews ohare (talk) 19:54, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

I added a figure to illustrate mountain formation in the intro and moved the map to the later section on various specific locations. Brews ohare (talk) 20:22, 24 January 2010 (UTC)

Upon further rumination, I wrote a new article for Mountain formation linked to Orogeny. I also rewrote parts of Orogeny to divorce it somewhat from mountain building, as it appears to be a subject devoted to a somewhat different although related topic. Brews ohare (talk) 01:20, 25 January 2010 (UTC)


 * You are correct in that the orogeny article is/was likely a bit too technical, however orogeny is the process that builds mountains. Geologists are interested in ancient mountains formed by orogeny and eroded away as well as the currently forming and eroding mountains the general public thinks of. Your newly mounted article has promise as a general introduction to mountain formation, but it must be consistent with the more detailed technical article. The Himalayas and Andes are the mind-boggling expressions of the Himalayan and Andean orogenies which have been ongoing for millions of years and will continue for millions more. The perspective of deep time is critical to comprehending the slow orogenic processes resulting from plate tectonics. Vsmith (talk) 04:10, 25 January 2010 (UTC)


 * I'll defer to the experts here. I take it that the term orogeny in practice is not focused very specifically upon mountain building, although mountain building is part of things. Mainly it can be understood from its use in terms such as Cadomian Orogeny, Caledonian Orogeny, as referring to a series of events, an orogenic cycle or deformation episode, as related to particular collisions of particular plates (Laurentia, Baltica, and Amazonia, e.g.) in particular time periods. Mountain building is almost a peripheral or ancillary matter in this context, which appears to be aimed largely at providing theory and experimental support for the underlying causes of a wide variety of geological features. As only one possible example of such usage, see the caption to Figure 10 in Catcosinos. Brews ohare (talk) 06:58, 25 January 2010 (UTC)


 * The term 'orogeny' does refer to mountain building but as geologists we spend a lot of out time wandering around the heavily eroded remnants of mountain chains. You're right that it is seen as part of a cycle and includes e.g. in the Caledonian orogeny a series of arc continent collisions followed by the closure of the Iapetus ocean and the climactic continent-continent collision. The final part of the story in most orogens is that of 'extensional collapse', a fate that undoubtedly awaits the Himalayas eventually (OR warning), and should probably be added to this article. Mikenorton (talk) 19:30, 25 January 2010 (UTC)


 * I don't see the need for a separate article on orogeny and mountain building, since they seem to refer to the same concept. I suggest that we have a gentle non-technical introduction to orogeny, which would improve the article for general readers. —hike395 (talk) 03:50, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

"Orogeny" is a broad and ambitious topic, as seen in discussions of a particular orogeny, for example, this discussion of the Caledonian Orogeny. Although the origin of the term "orogeny" apparently is in the Greek for "mountain building", that meaning has become a bit archaic.

To illustrate modern usage, I'll provide a few quotes here, which you may wish to skip if it is all old hat. Roy & Skehan say: "in the contemporary literature the term orogeny is understood as a severe structural deformational event followed or accompanied by metamorphism and the intrusion of syntectonic to posttectonic granites...an orogeny is usually explained by the collisions of two continents or of an island arc with a continent. It is possible that the collision of a continent and a mid-ocean ridge may also result in an orogenic episode. ... a major plate-tectonic scenario may be of considerable complexity involving several types of deformational events..." Kent & Kent say: "The orogeny is then understood as a complex of events which affect, fairly frequently, the same orogen, but whose intensity and nature vary from one place to another." Sonesson says: The Svecokarelian Orogeny is frequently spoken of as a cycle. The concept of cyclicity implies that orogenies tend to take a certain course for which there is empirical evidence. A cycle runs from the early development of depositional troughs, often with much evidence of balsaltic magmatism, through a culminating phase of strong beating, great crustal deformation and intrusion of granites..."

The point I'd like to have examined here is that "orogeny" has expanded to include all the aspects of a "deformational event" and not just mountain building. It is not an accident that the article Orogeny begins with a map. Almost all (perhaps all) discussions of a particular orogeny, for example the Caledonian Orogeny, are full of maps showing plate locations and full of discussions supporting the model of whatever collisions are invoked to explain a wide variety of geological structures (not just mountains, or even primarily mountains). There is rarely, if ever, any actual discussion of mountain building as central to a discussion of orogeny.

Thus, it seems to me that mountain building should remain separate, not only because it is a topic of interest to the non-specialist more than to the expert, but also because it is merely a facet of orogeny, and not its main preoccupation, which is empirical support for plate-tectonic scenarios. Brews ohare (talk) 07:57, 26 January 2010 (UTC)


 * Main preoccupation, which is empirical support for plate-tectonic scenarios.? That seems a bit odd. An orogeny is the tectonic process by which mountains are built ... along with a bunch of other effects/results. The evidence in the rocks is now seen/used as support for plate tectonic theory by geologists. The term and concept predates plate tectonics by quite a while. The now outdated geeosynclinal theories were advanced to explain orogenies before plate tectonics gained much support. Vsmith (talk) 13:09, 26 January 2010 (UTC)


 * Yes I too think that they should be two separate articles, content may overlap, but details differ, and the level of audience as the target may also differ. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 12:32, 26 January 2010 (UTC)


 * I could go either way on this. Either a separate introductory article tied to the more detailed orogeny article or an intrductory section within the orogeny article. That said, I would prefer inclusion as a part of overall redo as the current article needs quite a bit of work and said introductory section would be part of article improvement. The article is not really long enough to require breaking out a separate section. Vsmith (talk) 13:09, 26 January 2010 (UTC)
 * If Orogeny is in for a massive overhaul, this merge topic could be shelved until it is seen what Orogeny actually looks like. If the article takes the broader view of Orogeny (per the definitions linked above), Mountain building will be only a facet, and it may become clear that it distracts from the Orogeny article. Brews ohare (talk) 15:37, 26 January 2010 (UTC)

At this point it is apparent that a merge is a bad idea because the modern view of orogeny makes it an accompaniment to mountain building in many cases, not a cause. This view is now documented in Orogeny. Brews ohare (talk) 17:48, 2 February 2010 (UTC)


 * I have to disagree, though I'm happy that you've been working on geology articles. Orogeny is the cause of all mountain building related to collisional events. In your previous posts, you note that orogonies are accompanied by deformation. That deformation is shortening and thickening of the crust, which leads to surface uplift. So they are actually genetically connected. If there's some more fundamental issue here that you're having with the connection between the two, I (and others) are happy to answer, Awickert (talk) 06:05, 4 February 2010 (UTC)
 * I just read your changes to orogeny. Two issues that I think we are running into is that the paper is talking about is that topographic highs can be produced in other ways, and that previous mountain belts have eroded away. I would strongly disagree with the phrase, "Today, most geologists regard the formation of mountainous topography as postorogenic," because it is silly to think that the topography pops up after the deformation is done. I'm not a reliable source though :-). One issue is that the book was written by someone who doesn't study structural geology. Awickert (talk) 06:18, 4 February 2010 (UTC)


 * I believe that the current articles, by drawing a strong distinction between orogeny and mountain building, do not reflect the majority opinion of geologists. The misgivings from the other editors (Awickert, Vsmith, Mikenorton) reflect this. We can have two separate articles, but we have to fix this. —hike395 (talk) 13:38, 4 February 2010 (UTC)
 * I would have to agree that the mountain building article should be merged with the orogeny article. Orogeny is the process of mountain building and there is no need to have two articles about the same thing. BT (talk) 15:06, 4 February 2010 (UTC)
 * After further consideration, I would support a move of the Mountain building article to Mountain formation (currently a redirect). To most geologists, 'mountain building' and 'orogeny' are synonymous. There is a place for an article that describes the various processes by which mountains are formed. 'Mountain formation' seems like the natural title and avoids the common scientific usage of 'mountain building'. Mikenorton (talk) 17:19, 4 February 2010 (UTC)
 * That sounds like a good idea, and a good place to put the formation of high topography due to hot spot volcanism, rifting (and associated dynamic topography), and restraining bends... and possibly some others as well. Awickert (talk) 17:29, 4 February 2010 (UTC)
 * I made this move. Brews ohare (talk) 23:50, 4 February 2010 (UTC)
 * I just undid the changes to Mountain building - if the move needs to be done it needs to be done properly, as per WP:MOVE. As the page exists already it needs an admin to do it, by e.g. listing at WP:RM. -- JohnBlackburne wordsdeeds 23:57, 4 February 2010 (UTC)

The separation into two articles seems to me to be mostly agreed upon. Inclusion of the present Mountain building page with Orogeny looks to be a major distraction.

Although there is resistance expressed by BT and hike395 to making a distinction between orogenesis and mountain building, I'd appreciate a real attempt to deal with the contrary views extensively sourced in Orogeny. In particular, the verbatim statement of the separation in meaning by is supported in that work by extensive quotes from several authors. That is also the view of. I'd say from looking at the discussions of specific named orogenies, that the connection to mountain building is simply a tag attached to the phenomena; a convenient identifier & association, but the identification with rock folding is more accurate. Brews ohare (talk) 22:20, 4 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Seems the "contrary views" you have added are from geomorphologists and geographers. It would be interesting to know the criteria used in finding those "contrary views". I would especially note that the Encyclopedia of Physical Geography (2002) still retains mention of the "expanding earth" hypothesis. Where are your references to studies/reviews from tectonics and structural geology?
 * Now as Awickert stated above, there are mountains formed in non-orogenic environments and those need a home. And that is the main arguement for a separate article on mountain formation which can cover those epeirogenic highlands. The major mountain ranges, the Himalaya, Andes, Alps... are still best explained by orogenies and should be so described. My view would include orogenic mountains discussions within the orogeny article. A mountain formation article would mention that and defer to the orogeny article while focusing more on the volcanic and other mountains which occur outside of orogenic zones (the hotspot, block faulting, rift associated etc.). In addition the rugged mountain topography which results from erosion of uplifted areas should be discussed. Vsmith (talk) 23:48, 4 February 2010 (UTC)

Hi Vsmith: Maybe you can clear up for me what Mike Norton is talking about by saying that folding is a term inapplicable to the Himalayas and to the Alps, which seemingly would suggest that reference to orogeny in the connection of folding causing these mountains might be misplaced? In any event, is it generally accepted that geomorphologists use orogeny differently than geologists? Are you aware that Ollier quotes King, Burg & Ford, Jackson (the bible for English speaking geologists, according to them), and Allmendinger & Jourdan as support for their definition of orogen? Terminology is a bitch. Brews ohare (talk) 00:24, 5 February 2010 (UTC)
 * I think Mike Norton meant exactly what he said: that folding is not the major player in the formation of the Alps and Himalaya. And that thrust tectonics is more important in those orogenies. Yes terminology can be a bitch. I don't have access to the Ollier book to see the details of their argument or the source of their defs. Vsmith (talk) 01:22, 5 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks Vsmith, that's all I was trying to say and that was regarding use of the term 'fold mountain', nothing specifically to do with 'orogeny' v. 'mountain building'. Mikenorton (talk) 07:29, 5 February 2010 (UTC)

The biggest point, it seems to me, is that orogenesis refers to many processes that have to do with rock formation, rock movements and erosion, and the connection to mountain building is only that somewhere in the cycle it happens that mountains appear. Calling orogeny mountain building is like calling cancer a cough, it confuses a symptom with the disease. Brews ohare (talk) 00:42, 5 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Mountains are a geologically fleeting product of an orogeny, wait a few hundred million years and they're eroded away leaving just the crumpled deformed roots as evidence. So, no orogeny is not "just" mountain building - mountains are just formed during the process. Vsmith (talk) 01:22, 5 February 2010 (UTC)
 * To add on: it's not just somewhere in the cycle that mountain-building occurs, it's during the entire time that there is significant shortening and thickening of the crust (due to faulting and/or folding). However, even when any active processes have stopped and all that is left is the roots and perhaps related sedimentary basins, it is still called an "orogeny", though in the way of "the Proterozoic Penokean orogeny". This is because the rocks found there are the result of this orogeny. Awickert (talk) 01:52, 5 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Hi guys. I am really enjoying reading this thread, I am learning a lot. Is any of this going to be back posted into the articles it seems a shame to lose it. But can I drag the discussion back to the articles, which remain remain inpenetrable (nor used pejoratively) to the general reader. You seem to suggest that Mountain building is the portal- as it certainly has a title that uses two words that a first degree level student would have in their vocab, they then would bore down into Orogeny orStratovolcano or whatever. So this article needs to be softer and more welcoming. It is also important that all the links are checked so the reader gets a continuous experience. Uniformity in presentation helps.
 * The Orogeny can be greatly improved by by a introducing a ==Terminology== section after the lead where a more general introduction can be given to the field, and definition problems. There seems to be no predictable ==heading== names in the geology/geomormology articles I have scanned, perhaps this can be thought about and fixed. My final problem which I will open as a separated thread is that of the diagrams- colour seem to be used randomly, so that a strata may be beige on one diagram and pink on the diagram below, and colour should  be leading the general reader to the understanding of the concept.--ClemRutter (talk) 10:10, 5 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Glad you're enjoying the thread! There aren't many geologists here, so the articles are a bit haphazard. I think that terminology would ideally be handled via wikilink or inline notes where the terms appear, though a section could be added if it's really needed. If you could give us specifics of what is impenetrable to you, it will help us coordinate our work, Awickert (talk) 02:13, 6 February 2010 (UTC)