Talk:Van Sickle Island

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Bilorv (talk) 14:20, 23 March 2021 (UTC)

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An aerial view looks south toward a levee breach on Van Sickle Island in early December 1983.

• ... that a syzygy of celestial bodies caused Van Sickle Island (pictured) to flood in 2017? Source: Davis, Aaron (13 January 2017). "Delta islanders repair after floods, look toward next forecast". East Bay Times. Bay Area News Group. Retrieved 23 February 2021.
  • ALT1:... that ...? Source: "You are strongly encouraged to quote the source text supporting each hook" (and [link] the source, or cite it briefly without using citation templates)

• Reviewed: Pseudolarix wehrii
• Comment: The image is very cool, but it's not specifically of the island being flooded in 2017 (couldn't find any photos of that). In case that seems sketchy, there is another image, File:USGS Aerial imagery of Van Sickle Island, California.png, that can be used instead.

5x expanded by JPxG (talk). Self-nominated at 03:20, 26 February 2021 (UTC).

• New enough and large enough expansion. QPQ present. The sources in the hook fact don't use the word "syzygy", but one mentions this exact event. I'm OK with the image (which is PD) since no alternative is available and the caption does note it is not the 2017 event. No other textual issues I see. Sammi Brie (she/her • t • c) 18:24, 6 March 2021 (UTC)

• @JPxG and Sammi Brie: came to promote but not confident enough that this is a syzygy without a source that uses the term. Mercury News says Moran explained to visitors that the sun and the moon were both at their closest points to Earth and were also in line. Perhaps it's my astronomical knowledge or reading comprehension, but isn't this just a statement of the Sun and Moon being aligned? From what does it follow that the Earth is also aligned (the "closest points to Earth")? And is this sufficiently trivial an inference to not violate WP:SYNTH? — Bilorv (talk) 03:00, 23 March 2021 (UTC)

• @Bilorv: It was a spring tide, which is a phenomenon caused by alignment of the sun, earth and moon(referred to as syzygy by a lot of sources); I've added NOAA cites to support that this, as well as there having been a spring tide at the time. jp×g 04:26, 23 March 2021 (UTC)

Bilorv, the sun and the moon are always in line, just like the sun and the earth are; you can always draw a straight line between two points. It's adding the third celestial body (i.e. in this case, earth) that it becomes a syzygy, because there are now three points in a line. And that creates a much higher gravitational pull that either the sun or the moon on its own would. MeegsC (talk) 10:17, 23 March 2021 (UTC)

Very good point, MeegsC, and I appreciate the extra citations JPxG. Happy to promote now. — Bilorv (talk) 14:20, 23 March 2021 (UTC)

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Van Sickle Island/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Smallchief (talk · contribs) 09:21, 19 March 2021 (UTC)

Interesting article

I'm not an experienced reviewer of articles, so my only rating criteria is that the article tells me what I want to know about the subject -- and not too much about what I don't want to know. I believe the summary paragraph needs more information. I immediately wanted to know two things not found in the summary (and a bit difficult to find in the text): who owns the island and how do you get onto it? Ferry, bridge? (I don't see a bridge on the map.) I think those facts should be made more explicit in the text of the summary paragraph or paragraphs.

I was also curious about why governments are investing sizeable sums in maintaining the levees, as mentioned in the budget statistics. Does the island have importance for wildlife conservation -- or is this just a subsidy to influential landowners? Any controversy on that? The rationale for the government investment in the island might be made more explicit.

I dislike red links, but that may not be relevant in reviewing the article. In any case, this is an interesting article about a subject unfamiliar to me that I enjoyed learning about. Smallchief (talk) 09:21, 19 March 2021 (UTC)

@Smallchief: I'll attempt to address what you've said:

As for the ownership, the last paragraph in §Geography and ecology is the most comprehensive information I could find (that it's divided into 22 privately owned parcels used for duck hunting clubs and residences; I'll include that information in the lead.

As for access, it is hard to find information, but I've done my best, and you can see the result in what's now the third paragraph in §Geography and ecology.

As for why the government spends a lot of money on keeping it above water, sources don't really give a clear answer. A lot of islands in the Delta are maintained for water quality reasons (i.e. preventing saltwater intrusion), but Suisun bay I am not sure about. There are some conservation efforts (Grizzly Island Wildlife Area is directly to the north); it'd certainly be nice if the articles about Suisun Bay, Grizzly Bay and Honker Bay had more info on this, but it looks like slim pickins since the last of those is a redlink. Anyway, I've added some information about that in the first paragraph of §Geography and ecology.

Let me know what you think of it so far! jp×g 03:26, 20 March 2021 (UTC)

You've met my concerns. I'll declare the article "good." I don't know what the next step, if any, is. Good job. Smallchief (talk) 08:23, 24 March 2021 (UTC)

@Smallchief: Thanks for the review! There are a couple more steps, at Wikipedia:Good article nominations/Instructions#Passing, mostly replacing

{{GA nominee|01:26, 8 March 2021 (UTC)|nominator='''[[User:JPxG|jp]]'''×'''[[User talk:JPxG|g]]'''|page=1|subtopic=Geography|status=onreview|note=}}

on the talk page with

{{GA|~~~~~|topic=Geography|page=1}}

and replacing "C" in the WikiProject classification templates with "GA". jp×g 19:34, 24 March 2021 (UTC)

Another goofy little map.

• 1878... jp×g 05:19, 18 June 2021 (UTC)

Public domain photo

Found one here (looking south at Van Sickle from Montezuma Slough). jp×g 03:21, 17 November 2021 (UTC)

Also here. jp×g 03:21, 17 November 2021 (UTC)

moar aerials, old ones too

https://mil.library.ucsb.edu/apcatalog/report/report.php?filed_by=C-13570

https://mil.library.ucsb.edu/ap_indexes/c13570/supplemental/c-13570_sheet4of10_Whittier.jpg czech it out! jp×g🗯️ 07:18, 20 January 2024 (UTC)