User:Gkachuck/sandbox

LEAD: Following the glacial melting of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, new vegetation and warmer climate caused new New England to become inhabitable by early human settlers. This new climate, combined with an ample supply of hard volcanic rock and other natural features, created an ideal area for human settlement. These settlers fashioned tools, such as arrowheads, from surficial rhyolite deposits they found near what could have been their river valley settlements.

LEAD 2 (between sentences beginning "Much of the bedrock" and "The most recent rock"): These events culminated in the formation of Pangaea; the coastline as it exists today was created by rifting during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

Ecological Effects of Glacial Melting

The White Pine rose in New England shortly after the first deglaciation.

The melting of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (beginning by 18,000 cal yr BP), which covered what is currently the New England landscape up until the late Pleistocene era, caused significant ecological and climatic change in the region. Except for a number of abrupt climate reversals, the most extreme being the cold reversal of the Younger Dryas, the climate of the region generally experienced a rise in temperature (of up to 2˚ celsius) during the early Holocene. Fossil pollen findings indicate that the increased temperature in the region paralleled new vegetation patterns, such as the rise of hemlock and white pine in New Hampshire and the White Mountains. These vegetation shifts created ecological environments in the region where habitation by migratory caribou, which were hunted by early human settlers, was possible. These settlers could have moved to recently formed dune fields, which were produced by wind erosion of glacial outwash deposits, such as those found in the Ohio Valley, in the Hudson and Connecticut River valleys, and in the Israel River valley. Early human settlers could have populated these river valleys in order to observe the caribou migrating northeast along the newly formed rivers.

Volcanic History of New England

Depiction of the process of a caldera collapse, in this case Mount Mazama but representative of the general progression.

Although there are not currently any active volcanoes in New Hampshire or New England, the White Mountains region of the state contains strong evidence of volcanic approximately 145 million years ago. Volcanic formation in the White Mountains has been estimated to have occurred between the late Jurassic and early Cretaceous periods, and would have coincided with the separation of Pangaea. As Pangaea broke apart and land masses were shifting, large features like the White Mountains were formed; at the same time, as this multitude of cracks was occurring, magma rose up and filled many of these voids. In this manner calderas were formed throughout the White Mountains as magma receded; these calderas then subsequently erupted on a scale dwarfing the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. The results of these massive eruptions can be found in such places as the Ossipee Mountains, which are located proximal to the White Mountains. The Ossipee Mountains contain substantial amounts of volcanic rock, and the many ring dikes across the region indicate that there was once an active volcano on the site. Volcanic rocks can also be found throughout the White Mountains beyond the Ossipee region, further confirming that eruptions occurred across the area millions of years ago.

Pink Rhyolite.

Examples of Native American tools made from rock on display at a museum in South Hadley, Massachusetts.

Early Human Settlement

The first identified period to render traces of early settlement within the Northeast United States was the Pleistocene. Through examining material culture, chemical composition of organic and inorganic substances and land scape features of the northeast, geologists and archaeologists have cumulatively been able to deduct certain aspects of culture, necessity and context; relative to early northeast settlement. Traces of early settlement reside within the resident rhyolites located inside Mount Jasper.

BerlinNH MountJasper

Typical of northeast early settlement, fluted bifaces of these artifacts differ in relation to different periods of time and varying culture groups. These differences consist with various other circumstances, as well, but more apparent than any other aspect is the varying burial practice amongst each subsequent occupational group. Because of this difference between practice those who seek to date and identify these groups, face challenges to doing so through inadequate burial practice amongst early settlement groups (Abnaki, Penacook, Massachusett, Wampanoag, Narragansett, Niantic, Pequot, Nipmuc, Pocumtuck, River Indians, Wappinger Confederacy, Mahican, Nauset, Montauk, Mohawk). Rhyolites are the volcanic and quick drying granites which Native Americans fashioned into tools such as arrowheads. These Native Americans would collect rhyolite samples along the side of Mount Jasper and return to their camps at the base or summit to construct tools. Mount Jasper was added as a National Historical Place in the late twentieth century and is thereby protected under federal law from further extraction or disturbance, because of this, mines which have implications of Native American activity remain intact and able to be seen.

A Clovis projectile point created using bifacial percussion flaking (that is, each face is flaked on both edges alternatively with a percussor) Image courtesy of the Virginia Dept. of Historic Resources.

Article Evaluation for Geology of New England

Chosen article: Tectonics

Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?

Generally, all the material is relevant to the subject. I would say, however, that parts of the article that highlighted the importance of certain aspects of tectonics to the study of tectonics was distracting from understanding the subejct itself. The map seems to be in a distracting positioning.

Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?

Seems neutral to me.

Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?

The viewpoint of academic geologist might be overrepresented.

Check a few citations. Do the links work? Does the source support the claims in the article? The artlce only cites one source significantly, and it's a book that cannot be reached online.

The citation is only for a chapter from a book, The Encyclopedia of Cooastal Science (2005), and thus makes it difficult to check whether any claims in the article are consistent with the source.

Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference? Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?

The author only cites the source once, so one has to assume that all the article comes from the chapter from Sprenger (2005). It seems like a neutral source, but it is not properly cited so that we know where different points of information are coming from.

Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?

It seems the "Other fields of tectonic studies" is missing some information, or is not entirely relevant. Perhaps a section on tectonics in the geological history of the Earth could have been helpful.

Check out the Talk page of the article. What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?

On the talk page, users worked together to make the introduction remove statements or descriptions that assumed background knowledge and ensure that the distinction between lithosphere and crust was clear.

How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?

The article is part of WikiProject Earthquakes, WikiProject Volcanoes, and WikiProject Geology. It was also chosen as an article for improvement.

How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?

We haven't really discussed Tectonics much, but it seems consistent with what we read in Driver.

Planned Contribution to Wiki on New England Geology

The article is lacking references to contemporary sites that are important for understanding the geology of New England. I think that the Geology of Scotland Wikipedia article's inclusion of "important sites" makes the article much more accessible for the general reader, and allows readers to connect the timeline to current geological conditions. I intend to write on a number of sites, including Cape Cod Bay, especially Buzzards Bay, as an example of a glacial moraine, Mount Katahdin as en example of a formation with a cirque, Casco Bay as an example of an esker, and Walden as an example of a kettle pond.