[BR-Crater] next trip(s) to Black Rock

[Ian Kluft]

After the message about the update to the impact database, Rich Loring
responded to me saying, "Gotta see these rocks."  For new subscribers,
Rich is a retired mining geologist from Reno who subscribed to the mail
list and began helping with the research in January.  He came with us
in May on the visit to Pahsupp Mountain.  But he hasn't seen the places
we've been before that.

It should be pretty obvious that when a geologist participating in the
project wants to see something, that becomes a priority.  So for the next
trip to Black Rock, let's start with giving Rich the same tour at Upper
High Dry lakebed and that we gave to Bob Verish in September last year.
It was just an informal tour for Bob because that's all we had time for.
Our observations and questions can lead us from there.

Everyone check your calendars for the weekends of Sept 12 or 19.  I'm booked
the next two weekends.  After that we have to wait until the Burning Man
crowds are done with Black Rock.  Then Stratofox has some events in late
September and early October.  So Sept 12-13 or 19-20 are the best weekends
for a potential "Crater Assault 5" trip.

Quick summary of what we showed Bob on Crater Assault 3 on Sept 5-7...
* Pictures are at
     http://www.stratofox.org/pics/sca3-200809/
* The first place we showed Bob was where we had explored earlier that year
  and widespread-fractured rocks, what I described as "thinly sliced".  Right
  at the first stop, Bob showed what experience we need from a geologist.
  While the thinly-sliced rocks may also be interesting, he immediately
  looked at the large parallel joints (straight cracks) as clear evidence
  that the rocks had been through some stress.
     http://www.stratofox.org/pics/sca3-200809/img_1603.jpg
* We did some new exploration and took a lot of pictures.
* We showed Bob a spot on a steep slope where we found rocks which
  certainly aren't textbook shatter cones, but have interesting features
  of uncountable apexes in them.  One of the key things here is where one
  broke off and reveals more conical formations underneath - shatter cones
  have to be 3D fracturing patterns throughout a rock, not just on the
  surface.
     http://www.stratofox.org/pics/sca3-200809/img_1632.jpg
* Bob was interested to see what appeared to be a volcanic neck, but turned
  out to be a crumbling column of breccia, not lava.
     http://www.stratofox.org/pics/sca3-200809/img_1651.jpg
* On the way, we also came across the 41 N 119 W "confluence point"
     http://www.stratofox.org/pics/sca3-200809/img_1655.jpg
* These rocks are representative of what was listed as basalt on the USGS
  geologic map of the area.  Bob pointed out that it isn't basalt.  So the
  remaining question we didn't have time to answer - what exactly is it?
     http://www.stratofox.org/pics/sca3-200809/img_1673.jpg

I hope that helps until we can actually go there.