Talk:Alaska

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Former good article nomineeAlaska was a Geography and places good articles nominee, but did not meet the good article criteria at the time. There may be suggestions below for improving the article. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.
Article milestones
DateProcessResult
January 19, 2008Good article nomineeNot listed
December 3, 2010Good article nomineeNot listed
On this day...A fact from this article was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "On this day..." column on January 3, 2011.
Current status: Former good article nominee


Interactive map doesn't show Aleutian Islands past the 180th meridian

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I think this is because polygons that span the 180th meridian have some undefined behavior with geospatial libraries. GeoJSON in particular is a bit iffy about this, not sure if that is used here.

180th meridian bug

Wcedmisten (talk) 22:09, 25 May 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Still not corrected. It's a mistake to call the article A class in light of this glitch. Martindo (talk) 11:46, 1 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]

COVID section

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@SamX: The section I removed in March in Special:Diff/1143124233 appears to have been re-added to the article by an IP editor. But I see no reason why we need such a section; and with that context an edit summary saying Added very new information seems to be trolling. Walt Yoder (talk) 22:52, 2 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Walt Yoder: I only edited the page to provide attribution, since I found it via CopyPatrol and the section appeared to have been copied from COVID-19 pandemic in Alaska. I don't have a very strong opinion either way and I'm not going to get into a long-winded dispute over it. I think it's reasonable to include some information about the pandemic, although a few sentences or a short paragraph with a hatnote directing the reader to COVID-19 pandemic in Alaska would probably be sufficient. The COVID-19 pandemic was a major historical event with broad implications and I don't see why it shouldn't be mentioned in the article. I really don't think re-adding the passage was a trolling attempt—sure, it's possible, but absent clear evidence to the contrary we should assume that the IP added the passage in a good-faith effort to improve the article. — SamX [talk · contribs] 03:22, 3 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
The word-for-word copy of material I removed in March was not "very new information". The IP could not have thought it was. Walt Yoder (talk) 04:26, 3 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
They could've easily copied it from COVID-19 pandemic in Alaska or noticed that the section had been removed and re-added it without checking the history, and "very new" could just mean "very new relative to the other events described in the article". I really think you're reading into this too much, but I'm not going to engage further. — SamX [talk · contribs] 05:07, 3 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Exclave?

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this article says Alaska is an exclave (correct) "slightly comparable to the country of Iran", or words to that effect.

No references or explanation are given.

I struggle to understand this. How is Iran an exclave and/or how is it similar to Alaska?

Okay, so reading down I see it is stated that *if* Alaska were a country, it'd be a similar size to Iran. Regardless of whether or not Alaska is a country (it's not), it's still a comparable size to Iran. But this is neither helpful nor encyclopaedic. If my aunt had balls she'd be my uncle.

I imagine few people have a clear idea of the size of Iran,except insofar as it's huge. It's really a nonsensical comparison. And saying that Alaska is slightly comparable to Iran, without specifying one is talking about area, is ridiculous.

2A00:23EE:1C28:3BCE:59C8:D012:E395:8CF1 (talk) 00:05, 26 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I've clarified the sentence in the lead section. I don't see the harm in including that comparison in the article, but I won't object if you remove it. — SamX [talk · contribs] 00:19, 26 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
thank you Sam. I shan't remove anything, I know better than to edit a WP article. Personally I think the size could be better conveyed with reference to another US state, eg "Alaska is the largest US state, approximately 2.5 times the area of Texas (which is second largest)"
As I mentioned before, I don't reckon most folk have any sense of the size of Iran. And there's the issue of comparing a State to a country.
This kind of comparison is usually done using something relatable, as opposed to something of nearly the same measure (but not as relatable) . For example, "the adult Blue Whale is roughly the length of two double decker buses" instead of "the blue whale is as long as a Predator drone is wide". 2A00:23EE:1C28:3BCE:59C8:D012:E395:8CF1 (talk) 19:49, 26 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Cut accomplished. The comparison is quite clear in the first sentence of second paragraph of lede. Martindo (talk) 00:29, 28 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Good edit. I was also struck by the oddness of comparing it to Iran, and was considering make a similar edit to remove it. (I would like to know how many bananas can fit in Alaska though, I bet it's a lot.) Beeblebrox (talk) 17:05, 28 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
For the benefit of Iranian readers it would be more pertinent to consider how many figs could fit into Alaska :) Glad to see this tided up, thank you @Martindo 2A00:23EE:1C28:3BCE:81D0:3A56:D9F4:AD76 (talk) 21:26, 28 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Technically Greenland is an exclave of Denmark, separated by international waters over 500 km, so wouldn't greenland be the largest exclave in the world? 2A00:23C7:9588:B301:6190:59FF:3CDC:F139 (talk) 06:45, 1 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Yes.. but its autonomous .. and not recognised as equal to its mainland.
Eg it left the EU but denmark didnt.
Compare alaska,a fully normal and equal state of the USA.
Not sure what that really matters .
Eg Its not a dodgy microstate like Vatican city , which is indistinguishable from an autonomous ( or special rules ) area of Italy. 2407:E400:8047:8000:4877:6696:407:DF33 (talk) 11:17, 10 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]
its not like Greenland could be said to be part of Canada... Its certainly external territory.
But oh, all islands are naturally exclaves of any other mainland ..
Is Okinawa an exclave because its not a main island of japan, by what definition of main island or main land do we work ? Is sumatra an exclave of Indonesia, is tasmania an exclave of Australia ?
So making greenland a continent not an island would make it an exclave of greenland ? 2407:E400:8047:8000:4877:6696:407:DF33 (talk) 11:24, 10 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 2 April 2025

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FROM '''Alaska''' ({{IPAc-en|audio=en-us-Alaska.ogg|ə|ˈ|l|æ|s|k|ə}} {{Respell|ə|LASS|kə}}) is a [[Non-contiguous United States|non-contiguous]] U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America.

TO '''Alaska''' ({{IPAc-en|audio=en-us-Alaska.ogg|ə|ˈ|l|æ|s|k|ə}} {{Respell|ə|LASS|kə}}) is a [[Non-contiguous United States|non-contiguous]] [[U.S. state]] on the northwest extremity of North America.

69.181.17.113 (talk) 15:46, 2 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

 Not done: Doesn't need a link on U.S. State... Valorrr (talk) 03:45, 5 April 2025 (UTC)[reply]

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion

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The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for speedy deletion:

You can see the reason for deletion at the file description page linked above. —Community Tech bot (talk) 16:21, 8 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

MOS:LINKCLARITY wrt 4 largest cities

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@Giraffedata: Since I made a factual error in my edit summary, I'm pinging you. So the 4 largest US cities by area are all in Alaska. I don't like that great long blue link. We could shorten it like this: The state contains the four four largest cities in the United States by area, although that's not strictly kosher. But, WP:5P5. What do you think? YoPienso (talk) 23:01, 11 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That's better, since the purpose of the link then is to tell you what those four cities are and the linked-to article does. The problem with the original link is that the list is not an article about what it means to be a largest city by area; a reader clicking on the term "largest cities by area" is supposed to arrive at an article about that. Bryan Henderson (giraffedata) (talk) 03:01, 12 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
 Done OK! I went ahead and did it. YoPienso (talk) 05:07, 12 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Accuweather, Weather Channel reports 7.3 Earthquake

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.... on 7-16-2025. This quake set off tidal wave alerts all over the place. Damage, casualties is not known @ this time. Should I add this?216.247.72.142 (talk) 02:04, 17 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Earthquakes are not exactly rare (see for example list of earthquakes in Alaska). It does not seem particularly notable enough that it should be mentioned here, plus the tsunami warning was canceled. Mellk (talk) 05:01, 17 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
And there were not tidal wave alerts all over the place. HiLo48 (talk) 05:25, 17 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Incorrect info - earthquake section

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The section under history that details earthquakes mentions a “July 11, 1585” earthquake. The source connected to it only goes back to the Good Friday earthquakes. the sentence about this earthquake should be deleted. Readysetbirdwatch (talk) 13:54, 19 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It seems to be referring to the 1585 Aleutian Islands earthquake. Looking at the history, there was originally no citation, so I would guess somebody mistakenly cited this source that does not mention it. Mellk (talk) 14:20, 19 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
It doesn't belong in that section so I've removed it. Thanks for pointing it out, @Readysetbirdwatch. Schazjmd (talk) 15:26, 19 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
The sentence was originally referring to the Good Friday earthquake but an IP changed it to instead refer to an earthquake in 1585. Mellk (talk) 15:35, 19 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
The IP took that part out later in its series of edits, and changed it to the stand-alone sentence here. Schazjmd (talk) 15:42, 19 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
It's probably worth re-adding the mention that it was the most powerful earthquake recorded in the U.S. (we can use this). Mellk (talk) 15:48, 19 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
That makes sense. I do think that whole section could be trimmed of superfluous details; there's a main article that it links to, this section here should just be the highlights. Schazjmd (talk) 16:04, 19 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]
For sure. No doubt the earthquake is significant but I also think it takes up too much of the history section. Mellk (talk) 16:11, 19 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 16 August 2025

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Change Denali to Mount McKinley Zalienbeast (talk) 16:50, 16 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]

 Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{Edit semi-protected}} template. Mellk (talk) 17:02, 16 August 2025 (UTC)[reply]