Talk:Devils Tower National Monument

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	This article is part of WikiProject Indigenous peoples of North America, which collaborates on Native American, First Nations, and related subjects on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
Start	This article has been rated as start-Class on the assessment scale.
Suggested article edit guidelines: To help us prioritise our workload, and in readiness for Wikipedia:1.0, we need to assess our articles for Quality. If this article is Unassessed, please assess it. See the Article Classification for instructions. If you disagree with a rating, you can change it or discuss it at Article Classification. Before assessing this article, be sure to check the existing Archive of assessments made under the previous system (used until July 2006), and feel free to help in migrating the existing comments besides from adding your own evaluation. After assessing this article's quality, please make sure it to add it to the Lists at Article Classification, following the grading scheme detailed there.
This article has no comments yet. If appropriate, please review the article and leave comments here to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article and what work it needs.

This article is part of WikiProject Protected Areas, a WikiProject related to national parks and other protected areas worldwide. It may include the protected area infobox.

	This article is within the scope of the National Register of Historic Places WikiProject, a collaborative effort to improve Wikipedia's coverage of listings on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
Start	This article has been rated as start-Class on the assessment scale.

Devil's Tower National Monument, Devil's Tower

[edit] Odd erosion pattern

Can anyone explain why the top third of the tower is visibly much more eroded than the relatively-pristine lower two-thirds? If the tower was exposed by erosion of surrounding soft material, wouldn't there be a gradual change in the amount of erosion from the most-eroded top to the least-eroded bottom? And, can I justifiably eroded put any more erosions in this paragraph? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 86.31.127.7 (talk) 05:19, 31 January 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Origin

Devil's Tower has, indeed, a volcanic origin. It was most likely, a "caldera" similar to Kilauea's, without having an external flow and, therefore, without any volcanic material around its crater. Most "calderas" have little gases and hot lava may erupt to a certain altitude, but always falling inside the crater. This process explains absence of volcanic debris around Devil's Tower. --Fev 04:08, 10 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Formation theory dissent, or original research?

The following two sentences require citation:

"The current popular theory, that the tower is an intrusive feature, does not really hold up under scrutiny. If the tower formed as an intrusion, then the columns should radiate out from the center instead of rising steeply."

These statements are preceded by:

"Geologists agree that Devils Tower was formed by the intrusion of igneous material."

They are then followed by:

"Geologists agree that the igneous material intruded and then cooled..."

This seeems contradictory. If geologists generally agree on a theory of formation which includes intrusion, then that "current popular theory" does indeed "hold up under scrutiny". There is room here for dissent, of course, but unless a dissenting theory has been published by geologists in a scientific journal, it would seem to violate WP:NOR. -Tobogganoggin talk 04:01, 3 January 2007 (UTC)