[Stratofox Announce] discovery of impact crater at Black Rock Desert

[Ian Kluft]

To everyone with an interest in Stratofox's activities:

Thanks to members of Stratofox for helping to confirm the discovery of
an impact crater at the Black Rock Desert.  We'll submit this to
geologists who specialize in impact craters.

A group of 7 of us went to Black Rock on Jan 28 to investigate the theory.
Among the rocks we collected, there were shatter cones and shocked quartz,
providing the proof we were looking for.

I got this idea six weeks ago, over the New Years weekend, based on
photos from previous Stratofox trips to Black Rock.  I've written a page
of the findings at

   "Submitted for Study: Discovery of an Impact Crater at
   Nevada's Black Rock Desert"
   http://ian.kluft.com/blackrock/impact-crater/

The crater is so large and eroded that you can't tell you're in it
unless you know which mountain ranges in the distance are remaining
parts of its rim.  The east and west arms of the Black Rock Desert
playa run through it.  The crater is approximately a 30x40 mile ellipse.

You can recognize the mountains which are part of the rim of the crater
by the red-white-red rock layers of impact ejecta, such as on the Calico
Range, Pahute Peak in the Black Rock Range, and the Kamma Mountains
at Sulphur.