User:Bgould4/sandbox

Article Three

Melinis minutiflora, commonly known as molasses grass, is a species of grass.

It is a perennial grass native to Africa. Its seeds are dispersed by wind. Molasses grass usually grows to be thirty to sixty inches tall, and it forms mats when its long, slender stems lay on top of each other in layers up to four feet deep. Molasses grass can spread up other plants, using them as support, like a vine. It has fragrant foliage and colorful inflorescences. It blooms for short periods with differing bloom times depending on where the grass is located. Molasses grass generally flowers in the southern hemisphere between April and June and in the northern hemisphere in November.

Role as a Non-native Species

It was introduced to tropical areas such as Hawaii for livestock feed, and is now naturalized in some areas. Around 1812, molasses grass took root in Brazil and spread through abandoned coffee plantations. Similarly, around 1900, molasses grass was introduced in Hawaii for cattle grazing. In Hawaii, it continued to spread, though its spread was hindered by feral goats. It is considered an invasive species in many parts of the world, including some Pacific Islands and South America.

Molasses grass plays a large role in fire ecology in the regions where it grows. In the Brazilian savanna (Cerrado) this species is invasive and dominant due to the increased frequency of fire. When a wild fire occurs, molasses grass is very quick to colonize the disturbed area. Examples of this are seen in almost every region where molasses grass is found, including Australia, Brazil, and Hawaii where molasses grass even increases the risk of fire in the areas in which it establishes. Molasses grass increases the likelihood of fires where it has established because it is brittle and burns easily. This cycle where molasses grass establishes, burns easily, then reestablishes and burns again is known as the grass/fire cycle, and it undermines native plants’ ability to grow and thrive in their native environment. One result of this cycle is a drop in biodiversity in the affected area.

Explanation

This is an article about an invasive grass species. Almost nothing was cited when I started work on it, so I had to go through the four sources I found to see if I could find the content already mentioned. If I could not or the wording was vague, I rewrote it. The first two original sentences I merely added a citation to. The second sentence was originally "It spreads in the form of mat." That had no citation or clarification, so I added both. I found a source for how tall they grow, which was covered originally in the next sentence. I merely found a source to say that it is fragrant. Lastly for this section, I added more information to the idea originally presented that this grass has a short bloom period. The next section was originally very broad and confusing, so I researched each piece which was briefly mentioned and extrapolated on it. Also, I added hyperlinks to Wikipedia pages; the most important one is savanna. Interestingly, I found that Melinis multiflora has a lot to do with natural disturbances!

Article Two

The 2000 Mumbai landslide was a landslide that occurred in Ghatkopar, a suburban neighborhood located in Mumbai, India on July 12, 2000. Seventy-eight people, including twenty-seven men, fifteen women, and fifteen children, were killed, while seven more were injured. Most of the victims were residents of the Mumbai slums, where building and sanitation conditions are very poor. Government officials promised that the immediate family of each deceased victim would receive Rs 25,000 from the government, while the immediate family of each injured would receive Rs 10,000. Over one hundred and fifty firefighter personnel participated in search and rescue efforts, though officials reported little hope of finding any more survivors two days after the initial landslide occurred. The landslide was caused by land erosion, following heavy rains and subsequent flooding that coincided with a high tide in the Bay of Bengal. According to meteorologists, more than three hundred and fifty millimeters of rain fell on the suburbs of Mumbai in the twenty four hour period before the landslide. In the years since the 2000 Mumbai landslide, Mumbai has been determined by the Municipal Corporation Building to contain 327 areas that are in danger of landslides, including 49 in the city and 278 in the suburbs. Since this revelation, thousands of huts have been relocated or reinforced to protect the inhabitants from landslides.

Explanation

I made no changes to the first sentence except that I added the source. All of the sources I used were already cited somewhere in the existing article; however, many of them were nonsensical citation. Some sentences had no citation, and others had citations to sites which had no content on the sentence that carried the citation. In the second sentence originally the death tolls were typed in numbers rather than letters, so I changed that. Also, the number of dead given originally was 67, but I found in a 2014 source that the final death toll was seventy-eight. Also, I added the proper citations; there was none before. Originally, the third sentence was about the number of huts destroyed during the landslide, but I found no information on this in the pre-existing sources or on the Internet at large. I deleted that, and I added information given by two sources on those affected being the people who lived in the slums of Mumbai. After this, I added information about ex-gratia promised by the government to those affected. The original article’s next sentence is about the actions of the firebrigade to rescue survivors. This was mentioned in the first source and the BBC source; however, the original article cited the second source for this sentence though that source had no content on the rescue actions. The fifth sentence addresses the cause of the landslide, and it was originally vague. I clarified and added a little more information from the India Abroad. Next I added a sentence on the amount of rain that fell, which is important as the rain caused the land erosion which precipitated the landslide. Finally, I cleaned up the last original sentence to make it clearer, corrected the citation, and added another sentence which discusses the implications. Also, I added a link to the word slums, as I think it is important to understand the impact of the landslide.

Article One

The 1995 Gokyo avalanche was a mountaineering disaster that occurred on November 11, 1995. An avalanche struck a residential camp in the valley of Gokyo, Nepal, twelve miles southwest of Mount Everest, killing approximately 26 people. Thirteen Japanese hikers, eleven Nepalese guides, and two residents of the Pangka village died. Approximately seven other people were killed in the Kachenjunga region of Nepal. Additionally, about one hundred animals were buried by the snow and died, and five hundred and fifty people were evacuated by helicopter. The avalanche was brought on by a rains from an nonseasonal cyclones, which originated in the Bay of Bengal. Due to cold temperatures, the out-of-season rain turned into snow fall, and the avalanche resulted. Nepal does not usually have heavy precipitation in November, and as the storm came suddenly from the Bay of Bengal, meteorologists in Nepal did not forecast the inclement weather. The unexpected nature of the weather and resulting avalanche meant people were unprepared and the deaths were higher while response times were slower.

Explanation

The original article: The world's worst mountaineering disaster occurred on the night of November 11, 1995 when an avalanche struck a residential camp in the village of Gokyo, Nepal near Mount Everest killing 42 people including 13 of Japanese nationality.

The original article was one sentence, which cited three sources. The first had been a Yahoo News article, but it was a dead link. The second was a webpage posted by one man on his own website. The last was an online, non-scientific article which made a list of mountaineering disasters. The two that still exist are unreliable because they are not peer-reviewed and varied on dates and death tolls. To replace them, I found a peer-reviewed paper presented at an international science conference and altered the previous details to match the information found in my source. I changed the wording "the worst mountaineering disaster" because it is imprecise and even the source the original author cited did not explicitly refer to the 1995 Gokyo avalanche as "the worst." I next added a few more details such as how far in miles the site of the avalanche is from the famous Mount Everest. I added a few more details about the number of animals lost and the number of people evacuated to illustrate the range of effects beyond the death toll. Finally, I explained the scientific information: why the avalanche happened and why its effects were so bad.

Citation: Kattelmann, R., & Yamada, T. (1996). Storms and Avalanches of 1995, Khumbu Himal, Nepal. Paper presented at 1996 International Snow Science Workshop, Banff, Canada. Retrieved from Montana State University Library.

Practice Article

Editing "Big Meadows Fire" stub

Before

Big Meadows fire
Date(s)	June 11, 2013 - June 16, 2013
Statistics
Land use	National Park Service

The Big Meadows fire was a 2013 Colorado wildfire in Rocky Mountain National Park that started on the same day as the Black Forest Fire and the Royal Gorge fire.

Background

The Big Meadows fire started on June 6, 2010 around 3:30 p.m. due to a lighting strike and it originated in a grass area. It was recorded and estimated to have taken about 617 acres. It was located about 5 miles north of Grand Lake, Colorado and about 4.5 miles away from the Green Mountain Trailhead. The fires recorded to have been located on the north end of Big Meadows and on the west side of the Rocky Mountain National Park. It was recorded that no residential structures or communities were threatened by this fire. The fire had the ability to rapidly spread due to the factors of high winds, high temperatures, low humidity, and a large amount of beetle kill. Although the fire was contained and put out, it is not considered to be officially out until the winter snowfall. There were several trails that were closed due to the fire, and those trails included the Onahu Trail, the Green Mountain Trail and the lower Tonahutu Trail.

References

Category:2013 natural disasters in the United States Category:2013 wildfires Category:2013 in Colorado Category:Rocky Mountain National Park Category:Wildfires in Colorado

After My Changes

Big Meadows fire
Date(s)	June 10, 2013 - June 16, 2013
Statistics
Land use	National Park Service

The Big Meadows fire was a 2013 Colorado wildfire in Rocky Mountain National Park that started on the same day as the Black Forest Fire and the Royal Gorge fire.

Background

The Big Meadows fire started on June 10, 2013 around 3:30 p.m. due to a lighting strike, and it originated in a grass area. It was recorded and estimated to have taken about 617 acres. It was located about 5 miles north of Grand Lake, Colorado and about 4.5 miles away from the Green Mountain Trailhead. The fires recorded to have been located on the north end of Big Meadows and on the west side of the Rocky Mountain National Park. It was recorded that no residential structures or communities were threatened by this fire, and all major roads remained open in the Rocky Mountain National Park; Estes Park, Colorado; and Grand Lake, Colorado throughout the fire. The fire had the ability to rapidly spread due to the factors of high winds, high temperatures, low humidity, and a large amount of beetle kill. Firefighters completed a burnout operation to prevent the fire spreading south and endangering local water reservoirs. Firefighters used a pre-existing avalanche chute as a natural control line between the affected area and the unaffected area then set flame to the unaffected area between chute and the fire in order to burn up all the fuel. Although the fire was considered one hundred percent contained after thirty days with no smoke and five inches of rain fall, it was not considered officially out until the winter snowfall. Seven trails were closed due to the fire: the Onahu Trail, the Green Mountain Trail and the lower Tonahutu Trail, the Tonahutu Spur Trail, the Grand Lake Lodge Spur Trail, and the Timber Lake Trail. The trails were reopened after thirty days of no smoke.

References

Category:2013 natural disasters in the United States Category:2013 wildfires Category:2013 in Colorado Category:Rocky Mountain National Park Category:Wildfires in Colorado

Breea Gould's Opinion on David Bowie is an opinion held by Lousiaiana State University student Breea Gould on not only David Bowie's music but also his style, interviews, and the personas David Bowie has invented.