[BR-Crater] Stratofox expedition to Black Rock this weekend

[Ian Kluft]

Stratofox has a small group going up to Black Rock this weekend for
a recreational camping trip.  No launching anything - just exploring.
We're calling it "Stratofox 4", after previous recreational visits.
We've done this every year except when we had space launch attempts that
took up all our vacation time.  (That's a good problem to have.)

Though we will have other destinations to explore, we expect to camp
at our favorite spot at Upper High Dry Lakebed.  Everyone on the trip
has an interest in finding evidence of the impact so that search will
be part of the trip.

This exploration is influenced by the short visit 2 weeks ago.  The rocks
we found on the north side of Upper High Dry had an intriguing fracturing
pattern pointing ESE.  The "island" in the Upper High Dry lakebed was also
already identified as an interesting fracturing pattern pointing east.
With the advantage of discussion and research following the last visit,
we think these could be "fractured basement rocks", continuing to be
consistent with the possibility of an impact.  In order to test this idea,
we'll look at rocks higher up, which is where diagrams in papers say to
expect shocked rocks and shatter cones in the structure of an impact crater.
If we find shatter cones in emplaced rocks (what geologists call "in situ")
that would be the confirmation of an impact which we've been looking for.

Bear in mind, as encouraging as this may sound, there is never a guarantee
of finding what you're looking for on a search like this.  It would be
remarkable, to say the least, if we're able to find proof less than a year
after the idea was conceived.  So wish us luck.  But don't set your
expectations higher than we might be able to live up to. :-)

It was almost a year ago in early September 2006 on the Stratofox 3 trip
that I first took notice that the pervasive fracturing on the island in
Upper High Dry Lakebed had an odd structure to it.  For years I had
dismissed all the features of the area as "the strangest volcano I've
ever seen."  It was that fracturing pattern that sparked the idea of
a possible impact scenario.  It took months before I revisited the idea
with research on the Internet into what it really takes to identify an
impact site.  And so far with everything my friends and I have learned,
even after many many crossroads where new data could have pointed in favor
or against, it has kept coming up possible or consistent with an impact.

I've had some missteps along the way.  I mistook the structure in the
fractured rocks on the island for possible shatter cones. I was set
straight by experts on that fairly quickly.  So let's see if we can
use everything we've learned in this past year and find the real thing.

We'll be back home Sunday night.