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Featured articleQuelccaya Ice Cap is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so.
Main Page trophyThis article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on April 30, 2021.
Article milestones
DateProcessResult
September 26, 2019Good article nomineeListed
February 8, 2021Featured article candidatePromoted
Did You Know
A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on October 9, 2019.
The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that birds nest in the Quelccaya Ice Cap of Peru?
Current status: Featured article

SG review notes

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Stopping for now to give you a chance to catch up; remind me to resume at "Physical structures of the ice". Best, SandyGeorgia (Talk) 16:19, 22 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Personal preference: I would move the "outline of" image from the lead to somewhere in the body. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 16:21, 22 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@SandyGeorgia:I'd say it's better off where it is as it shows the extent and shape of the ice cap. DTH otherwise. Also, I have developed a convention that I update an article with new sources only once per year, during the Christmas holidays; would it be warranted to break with that convention here? Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 18:07, 22 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Continuing

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  • We need a definition for "dendritic".
    Added a link. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 11:21, 25 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • In geomorphology, the list of lakes contains some full sentences and some sentence fragments. Since they all have final puncutation, maybe they should all be full sentences?
    Went for sentence fragments, except for when there is additional explanation. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 11:21, 25 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • This all needs detangling: "On the western side of Quelccaya these valleys include the Qori Kalis valley northwest of the ice cap, Challpa Cocha valley south of Qori Kalis,[86] the wide and flat Huancané measuring 0.5 kilometres (0.31 mi) and its tributary the "South Fork"[c] valley[37] south of Challpa Cocha valley.[86] The Huancané valley runs southwestwards away from Quelccaya[87] and is occupied by the Huancané River.[88]"
    Attempted to untangle this. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 11:21, 25 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Stopping for now, will resume later at "Climate" section; feel free to revert anything I damaged :) SandyGeorgia (Talk) 18:50, 24 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@SandyGeorgia: Got these. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 11:21, 25 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Climate
  • Too many clauses here: Annual precipitation at Quelccaya and the neighbouring Cordillera Vilcanota is about 0.8–1.0 metre per year (2.6–3.3 ft/a), with most of it originating from the Amazon and falling during austral summer[36] during the summer monsoon[106] when high insolation leads to intense convection and showers;[107] the location of the ice cap also generated orographic precipitation. Split at semi-colon? Why past tense? Brief explanation of "orographic precipitation" so reader doesn't have to click out ?
    Done. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 07:47, 26 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • Overall, annually about 1,150 millimetres ... do we need the "overall"? Redundant?
    Rewritten. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 07:47, 26 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • Why not move this to the start of the para, to prepare readers for what the para is about? This is much wetter than most of the tropical Andes, a consequence of Quelccaya's proximity to the Amazon. --> Because of its proximity to the Amazon, Cuelccaya is much wetter than most of the tropical Andes. ... to start the para ... that clues the reader to skip the detail if they aren't interested. I think that sort of thing could improve a lot of your volcano content ... tell the average reader earlier what they are about to read, so they can skim if they don't want the detail.
    Um, I think that discussing how much precipitation falls goes before saying that it's more than somewhere else. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 07:47, 26 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • with day-night temperature ... whenever you can read a transition (day to night), an WP:ENDASH is used instead of a hyphen.
    Done. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 07:47, 26 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • Way too difficult to get through: Assuming a constant lapse rate mean temperatures of −3.3 °C (26.1 °F) (−6.3–0.9 °C (20.7–33.6 °F)) and −0.5 °C (31.1 °F) (2.9 – −3.1 °C (37.2–26.4 °F)) have been inferred for its margin during the dry and wet seasons, respectively. Too many dashes, parens, converts, complicated by a "respectively split". Needs disentangling. I can't really tell what it says ... don't know what number is what, eyes glaze over ... don't know how to fix it, don't know what it says.
    I've split it up. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 07:47, 26 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • Ungrammatical, can't tell what it wants to say ... However, apart of precipitation fluctuations climate at Quelccaya has been stable over the past 1500 years[125] and during recent decades precipitation has not fluctuated significantly.
    Attempted to rewrite that. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 07:47, 26 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Done for now, will resume at Scientific research and monitoring. Generally, I would add a gazillion more commas to make the dense text more digestible, but I think that's a BrEng thing or something. Also, I wonder if the list under "A number of research findings have been made with the Quelccaya ice core:" might be converted to prose with thematic paragraph breaks, rather than a list. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 20:33, 25 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@SandyGeorgia:I think there is a little too little information (other than intricate detail) on soem of these points to make them into bigger paragraphs. I've processed the issues above. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 07:47, 26 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • These reach −3.3 °C (26.1 °F) (−6.3–0.9 °C (20.7–33.6 °F)) during the dry season and −0.5 °C (31.1 °F) (2.9 – −3.1 °C (37.2–26.4 °F)) during the wet season, respectively. I still can't decipher what this is about, and it's a mouthful of numbers. I don't know why there are two sets of parens, and I don't know what the respectively refers to. Maybe it can be split again. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 17:57, 27 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
    Attempted to correct this one. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 19:47, 27 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Scientific research and monitoring
  • The American paleoclimatologist Lonnie Thompson and the Ohio State University have been monitoring Quelccaya since 1974[139] and the ice cap has been investigated for its glaciology[140] and for both its past and present climate.[27] Why are these two thoughts combined to one sentence? Is it because that is what Ohio State investigates? If so, why not say that directly?
    Both of them refer to research efforts at Quelccaya, rather than their results or techniques like the rest of the section. That's why they are together. It's a bit of a "shotgun marriage" but it looked a little jumpy as two sentences. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 19:47, 27 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • The layered appearance of the Quelccaya ice cap at its margins suggested to scientists that it could be used to obtain ice cores with annual resolution. ... I think the "it" refers to the layered appearance, which is really referring to layers ... which could be "they" instead of "it" ... I think what this sentence is saying is that the layers could reveal information about some sort of yearly activity, but no idea why the word "resolution" is used.
    No, it referred to the ice cap - fixed this. "Resolution" means that one can subdivide the layers by year. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 19:47, 27 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • Jo-Jo, I worry that these articles labor under the need to mention everything in every source ... part of the art of writing is knowing what to leave out as much as what to add in, and I don't see what this adds: After a summer field program that lasted between 1976 and 1984 ... I see similar issues throughout, often wondering why certain data is included, except that you strive to cover everything, perhaps more so than necessary. Not sure we need to know every year an ice core was taken, for example. Many others taken in later years works.
    It's a bit of a judgment call, but here I'll stand by some of the details. The Quelccaya ice core is important because it is the first major ice coring project outside of the polar regions, and has been followed by similar projects elsewhere. Also, as you can see some sections farther down, global warming is destroying the ice record at Quelccaya. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 19:47, 27 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • has been used to date the ice core;[151] in turn the thickness of the ash at Quelccaya has been used ... has been used, has been used
    Done. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 19:47, 27 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • I didn't read the list in "ice cores" (the effect that lists like that have on me as a reader is to let me know to skip them :)
    Um, which list? The bulleted one? Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 19:47, 27 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • The results of the Quelccaya ice core are widely used ... results of the ice core studies ???
    More than one study has been conducted on that ice core. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 19:47, 27 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • and the first annually resolved such record from the tropical Andes; ... don't know what that means
    Specified. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 19:47, 27 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • it demonstrated the usefulness of tropical ice for ice core studies ... it refers to what ... the studies ? which would be plural ?
    Yes. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 19:47, 27 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Will resume at Natural history. I am hoping that when I am done, Mongo will also go through, as I am not really able to fine tune the prose as I think it still needs ... I am only catching some basics. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 18:11, 27 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Did some of these things, SandyGeorgia, but I think you meant "MONGO"? I've pinged them. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 19:47, 27 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Natural history
  • Can this be split? Moraines deposited by older glaciers indicate that during the Pleistocene and Holocene glaciers covered larger areas,[2] such as the outwash- and till-covered plain west of Quelccaya,[98] and connected with the Cordillera Vilcanota ice cap,[175][176] covering the area with sandy drift derived from ignimbrites.
    Recast that sentence. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 10:01, 28 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • The preceding sentence talks about plants growing at a margin, and then, "This shrinkage may relate to a warmer and drier climate at that time." Doesn't relate to previous sentence?
    Both of them refer to the middle Holocene lowstand of the ice cap. Would it make sense to invert the order of the sentences? Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 10:01, 28 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
  • part of the global neoglacial; ... neoglacial what? This re-expansion ...; this pattern ... vary wording? this pattern of a larger ice cap during the late Holocene than the early is similar ... than the early ??
    Rewrote this a bit. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 10:01, 28 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Will continue at Present retreat, SandyGeorgia (Talk) 23:04, 27 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Seeing as Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Laguna del Maule (volcano)/archive2 is getting moving again, pinging SandyGeorgia and MONGO in case there is anything more to say on this one. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 10:20, 22 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I will resume where I left off shortly Jo-Jo ... probably tomorrow though as I am still trying to sort the issues at WP:URFA/2020. Bst, SandyGeorgia (Talk) 19:25, 22 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

From Scientific research on

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All done! SandyGeorgia (Talk) 17:12, 23 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Continuing 2

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Back for a re-read:

Reading through all of these dashes and minuses is really awful. It might work better to re-cast these sentences to use more English and do manual converts to make it less burdensome ... and, do we put the lowest number first or last ... and sort margin from top ... so sorting all of that ...
  • Temperatures at the top of Quelccaya are inferred to be between −4.2 °C (24.4 °F)[1] and −4.8 °C (23.4 °F).[36] For the margin of Quelccaya, mean temperatures have been inferred under the assumption that the lapse rate is constant. These reach −6.3–0.9 °C (20.7–33.6 °F) with a mean of −3.3 °C (26.1 °F) during the dry season and 2.9 – −3.1 °C (37.2–26.4 °F) with a mean of −0.5 °C (31.1 °F) during the wet season, respectively.
I am thinking of something like this to eliminate endashes adding to the minus sign burden, while also getting rid of a "respectively" that requires us to re-read the sentence to sort:
  • Temperatures at the top of Quelccaya are inferred to be between −4.8 °C and −4.2 °C (23.4 °F and 24.4 °F). For the margin of Quelccaya, mean temperatures have been inferred under the assumption that the lapse rate is constant. Varying between −6.3 °C and 0.9 °C (20.7–33.6 °F), the mean temperature at the margin is −3.3 °C (26.1 °F) during the dry season. During the wet season, it varies between −3.1 °C and 2.9 °C (26.4–37.2 °F) with a mean of −0.5 °C (31.1 °F).
That is better; it's in. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 20:32, 4 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Semi-colon instead of comma before in particular?
  • Quelccaya has been shrinking due to human-caused climate change, in particular the Qori Kalis Glacier has been retreating significantly.
Done. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 20:32, 4 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Why the quotes on eastern?
  • or "eastern" Andes
Removed. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 20:32, 4 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Andes drop off steeply to the Amazon basin[8] and the Amazon rainforest is only 40 kilometres (25 mi) away, which is barely discernible from the summit of Quelccaya -->
  • Andes drop off steeply to the Amazon basin. The Amazon rainforest—only 40 kilometres (25 mi) away—is barely discernible from the summit of Quelccaya.
Reverse this to get the point across easier (that is, move the other ice caps to the end of the sentence, which allows the reader to easier scan the sentence for meaning):
  • Together with Coropuna and ice bodies in New Guinea and the Rwenzori Mountains in Africa, Quelccaya is one of the few tropical ice caps in the world; during glacial times there were more ice caps which may have resembled Quelccaya. -->
  • During glacial times there were more ice caps which may have resembled Quelccaya, but today, Quelccaya is one of the few tropical ice caps in the world, along with Coropuna and ice bodies in New Guinea and the Rwenzori Mountains in Africa.
Hmm, my thinking was that since we are looking backwards in time (past glacial climates are only discussed a few sections farther down) starting with the present would be more apropos. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 20:32, 4 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Similar here ... reversing the sentences allows the reader to get the point and scan over the numeric detail:
  • The ice cap lies at 5,200–5,700 metres (17,100–18,700 ft) elevation; Quelccaya is thus a low-elevation ice cap by tropical standards that nonetheless rises above the surrounding terrain. -->
  • By tropical standards, Quelccaya is a low-elevation ice cap that rises above the surrounding terrain; the ice cap is between 5,200 and 5,700 metres (17,100–18,700 ft) elevation.
Done. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 20:32, 4 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
At this point in the article, we've mentioned Coropuna several times ... so probably the clause "also in southern Peru" should have occurred earlier ... ?
  • and was thus smaller than the ice on Coropuna[14] volcano also in southern Peru,
Moved it up, but now I worry about the length of the paragraph. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 20:32, 4 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Redundancy vegetation ... is there another word you can use to avoid vegetated ... vegatation ?
  • The terrain west of Quelccaya is sparsely vegetated[25] with high elevation tundra vegetation.[127] The vegetation in the region ...
That's a tough one. "Flora" is too technical, "plants" too heavily focused on individuals, "covered" overstates the coverage... Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 20:32, 4 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Awkward ?
  • Lichens grow on rocks; 23 lichen species have been identified at Quelccaya. -->
  • Twenty-three lichen species have been identified growing on the rocks at Quelccaya.
Recast. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 20:32, 4 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Projections are always for the future ... redundant ...
  • Future projections section
Why not just Hydrology ...
  • Hydrology and significance
Because "hydrology" alone discusses only rivers and their flow, but here I want to discuss socioeconomic factors as well. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 20:32, 4 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Ready for FAC! SandyGeorgia (Talk) 15:31, 4 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Pronunciation of Quelccaya?

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Adding the pronunciation of "Quelccaya" might be interesting Chidgk1 (talk) 19:26, 23 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I have no idea where to get a reliable source about that, though. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 20:52, 23 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Not even sure what idiom it is, because the double cc is so odd there. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 23:04, 23 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Comments by MONGO

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Generally I do better if I simply alter the prose and do random reference checking for things. Is this a form of Peer Review going on now as a prerequiste to a Featured Article nomination?--MONGO (talk) 15:11, 2 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]

MONGO, I am barely scratching the surface and would be thrilled to see you dig in. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 15:31, 2 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
MONGO, yes, it's the prerequisite for a FAC nomination. As SandyGeorgia noted above the prose may not be up to par. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 16:10, 2 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Will try and work on it but might not see much effort till mid week lots going on in real life.--MONGO (talk) 16:20, 2 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Ok..have not given up hope yet...just curious how much I can alter wording? I hate stepping on anyone's toes but I may be a bit drastic in a few areas.--MONGO (talk) 00:40, 11 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I generally check people's edits to my articles, to make sure that they didn't break text-source integrity. Your edits so far seem OK to me. I would use different wording on some points, but then, there is more than one way to write the same topic. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 09:36, 11 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@MONGO and SandyGeorgia: Anything else missing? Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 17:15, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I can do a fresh read through tonight ... please ping me if I forget, SandyGeorgia (Talk) 18:44, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Is the jury in that the ice cap retreat is solely due to human caused global warming? My understanding is that while this is the defining factor according to the sources, its not the only reason as we have been in a warming state as a trend since 10K years ago. The overall trend has been one of warming since then.--MONGO (talk) 20:06, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
The following article attributes a lot of the most recent retreat to a strong El Nino effect in 2015 and reduced precipitation overall since 1970.[3]--MONGO (talk) 20:16, 3 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@MONGO:Good question, but as the Quelccaya article notes early in the Holocene Quelccaya was smaller than before the Little Ice Age/recently, and the modern retreat was underway since before the 2015 ENSO event (putting aside for a moment whether the 2015 ENSO event was a natural one).

I presume there may be sources here that answer this question; I'll go through them later today. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 10:32, 4 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

So, did much of the expansion - edit is here if someone could check the prose. I am not sure we want to have the details on equilibrium line altitude ([4]) included. This source discusses the continuing shrinkage but it doesn't show a drastic change around 2015-2016. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 14:40, 4 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Removed a section on cyclicity

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​Specifically * Snow accumulation has a roughly 250-year cyclicity; this may be a consequence of evaporation in the North Atlantic.[1] A 14-year cycle has also been detected.[2]; as noted in the FA candidacy apparently statistical methods for detecting cyclicity are now considered questionable. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 10:41, 20 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

References

  1. ^ Villalba, Ricardo; Boninsegna, José A.; Lara, Antonio; Veblen, Tom T.; Roig, Fidel A.; Aravena, Juan-Carlos; Ripalta, Alberto (1996). Jones, Philip D.; Bradley, Raymond S.; Jouzel, Jean (eds.). Interdecadal climatic variations in millennial temperature reconstructions from southern South America. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. p. 185. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-61113-1_9. ISBN 978-3-642-64700-0. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  2. ^ Soubiès, F.; Seidel, A.; Mangin, A.; Genty, D.; Ronchail, J.; Plagnes, V.; Hirooka, S.; Santos, R. (1 June 2005). "A fifty-year climatic signal in three Holocene stalagmite records from Mato Grosso, Brazil". Quaternary International. 135 (1): 124. Bibcode:2005QuInt.135..115S. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2004.10.027. ISSN 1040-6182.

Questionable theory

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From what I know this attempt to correlate Quelccaya to the Ruwenzori has gained some criticism. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 13:35, 7 December 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Joyllor Puñuna

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Only one source used in the article names it the highest point of Quelccaya, but a lot of sources refer to a highest point of Quelccaya. I've written it so that the name refers to the "summit" of Quelccaya and thus referred the elevation estimates to it. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 16:00, 7 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

New bullet point in ice cores section

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That is a bit preliminary; expansion welcome. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 16:00, 7 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Black carbon

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Not sure if we can take this source as evidence that black carbon impacts the ice cap. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk) 16:00, 7 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

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