[BR-Crater] some of the rock samples are magnetic

[Ian Kluft]

Brad told me that among the rocks brought back from Upper High Dry, the
"red ones" are magnetic.  If I understood correctly which ones he meant,
they appear to be a red/brown melt-bearing breccia, basically looking like
a lava rock with other jumbled lava rocks inside it.  Except we think it's
impact melt, not lava.  And now it turned out to be magnetic.

The tops of many of the mountains around Upper High Dry are lava-like
red-colored rocks.  Although I'm not sure that's where these are from,
it's the most obvious source of red when looking around there.  The
mountains on the left in this south-facing photo are an example:
   http://ian.kluft.com/blackrock/upperhidry-20070805/img_9838.jpg

This is interesting because indications of iron should be found in some
melt rocks at an impact site of an iron-nickel meteorite.  The energy
of the impact is sufficient to melt or evaporate 90% of the impactor,
according to "Traces of Catastrophe" and other sources.  Of course the
evaporated parts condensed again.
   http://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/books/CB-954/CB-954.intro.html

Brad had already used the GRASS GIS software in February to process
LandSat multispectral infrared imagery.  He determined that there is a
higher concentration of iron in the rocks of the southern Black Rock
Range than in the surrounding region of northwestern Nevada.