Template:Did you know nominations/1888 Ritter Island tsunami

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 Vaticidalprophet (talk) 10:06, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

Ritter Island tsunami

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~~... that not only did the 1888 eruption on Ritter Island kill 3,000 people from a tsunami, but it also reduced the 780-meter high volcano to a height of just 140 meters?~~ Source: [1][2]

ALT1 ~~... that not only did the 1888 eruption on Ritter Island cause a tsunami that killed 3,000 people but it also reduced the 780-metre (2,559 ft) volcano to a height of just 140 metres (459 ft)?~~

Created by Dora the Axe-plorer (talk). Self-nominated at 04:28, 7 February 2021 (UTC).

New enough (February 6), long enough (6736 characters). The article is cited to solid sources but certain paragraphs are completely unsourced (the second paragraph in Pre-1888 Ritter Island; the second paragraph in Eruption and collapse) as is the sentence specifically referring to half of this hook's facts ("As the summit had entirely collapsed, the height of the island was greatly reduced to just 140 meters, from 780 meters.") No concerning copyvio flags. And hook is short enough but in addition to the height fact going unsourced in the article, the claim of 3,000 died because of the tsunami is 1) unsourced in the article, 2) not mentioned anywhere in the article body, and 3) not well supported by the claims the article does make ("Every village along the Dampier Strait was destroyed by the tsunami, with an unknown number of casualties" and "On Umboi Island, unknown numbers of inhabitants along the coasts drowned when the tsunami advanced towards them" specifically; how can the number 3,000 be known if many death counts are unknown?) QPQ not needed as this appears to be the user's first DYK.

Overall, this hook would be interesting but it needs to be sourced within the article and the article in general could use some copyediting. There are a few places where the article text states that something "was said to be" or "were said to have" that should be clarified: who said these things? Dora the Axe-plorer, I've also added an alternate hook (ALT1) that slightly rewords your hook and adds meter-feet conversions for readers using imperial measurements. Kindly —Collin^{t c} 22:25, 7 February 2021 (UTC)

Collin, thanks for the feedback. The height fact is mentioned and cited in the Pre-1888 and Post-collapse sections. I've cited the casualties estimates (500 to 3000) and the uncited sections you've pointed out and removed contradicting elements. I hope it is enough. Thank you for adding the conversions too, it sounds much better. (User talk:Dora the Axe-plorer) 23:35, 7 February 2021 (UTC)

Thank you Dora the Axe-plorer. The article is looking better-cited in general, although some statements still don't quite reflect what the sources say; for instance, the fact about the two previous Ritter Island eruptions talks about them as being certain but the source (Karstens et al. 2019) says "Two eruptions in the southern Bismarck Sea, with unconfirmed dates of 1878 and 1887, may have been at Ritter" (3), suggesting there is not consensus they were Ritter Island. Importantly, I cannot find the cited values (780/140 m) in the cited source (Karstens again); can you swap the source to ref 7, which does support the statement?

Also, here's a new version of the hook to support the variable number of deaths:

ALT2: ... that the 1888 Ritter Island eruption not only caused a tsunami that killed 500 to 3,000 people but also reduced the 780-metre (2,559 ft) volcano to a height of just 140 metres (459 ft)?

That one is pretty long (but technically not too long) so here's a version with just the height part in case whoever closes the nomination needs a shorter version:

ALT3: ... that the 1888 eruption of Ritter Island reduced the 780-metre (2,559 ft) volcano to a height of just 140 metres (459 ft)?

How do those look? Only thing to do for the nomination now is switch sources to one that mentions both the 780 and 140 m heights. Kindly —Collin^{t c} 00:24, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

Collin, yes that height fact has been cited with ref 7 (now 8). I have also cleared up the confusion about the 1878 and 1887 eruptions, and a little more for that section with a new source mentioning older eruptions. I'm hoping things are a little clearer now.

Both hooks are fine by me BTW. (User talk:Dora the Axe-plorer) 10:30, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

Thank you for your work on this Dora the Axe-plorer, ALT2 and ALT3 are good to go. Thank you! —Collin^{t c} 22:47, 10 February 2021 (UTC)