Black Rock Desert

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Bureau of Land Management sign announcing the eight mile playa entrance.

The Black Rock Desert is a dry lake bed in northwestern Nevada in the United States. Considered one of the flattest surfaces on the earth, the desert is part of the extended playa of the lake bed of prehistoric Lake Lahontan, which existed between 18,000 and 7,000 BC during the last ice age. During the lake's peak around 12,700 years ago, the desert floor was under approximately 500 feet (150m) of water.

The desert extends for approximately 100 miles (160km) northwest from the town of Gerlach-Empire, between the Jackson Mountains to the east and the Black Rock Range to the west. It has an area of about 1,000 square miles (2,600 km²).^[1] The intermittent Quinn River drains into the Black Rock Desert. Since it has no outlet to the sea, it "sinks", or evaporates, in there.

In the mid-1800s, particularly during the California Gold Rush, the Applegate-Lassen Cut-Off of the California Trail left the main route of that Trail near present-day Rye Patch Reservoir, and crossed the Black Rock Desert, on the way to Goose Lake in northwest California, and the California gold fields.

The Sulphur mining district on the east side of the desert has been mined since the late 1800s. Sulfur, mercury, alunite, silver and gold have been mined there.^[2] An opal mine is in the base of the Calico Mountains on the west side of the desert.^[3]

Black Rock Desert

The flatness of the surface has led to its use as a proving ground for experimental land vehicles. It was the site of the most recent successful attempts on the World Land Speed Record. In 1983, Richard Noble drove the jet-powered Thrust2 car to a new record of 633 miles per hour. Noble also headed up the team that beat the Thrust 2 record. In 1997, ThrustSSC became the world's first, and so far only, supersonic car.

The area is also used by the Tripoli Rocketry Association for the annual experimental rocket festivity "BALLS". It is the USA's most prized launch sites^{[citation needed]} for high power and amateur rocket hobbyists.

It has become famous as the site of the annual Burning Man festival. It is informally referred to as "the playa."

1 Hot springs in the Black Rock Desert vicinity
- 1.1 Fly Geyser
2 See also
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Hot springs in the Black Rock Desert vicinity

Black Rock (coordinates: 40.972 119.007)[1]
Trego / Butte (coordinates: 40.770 119.113) [2]
Double Hot (coordinates: 41.051 119.028) [3]
Springs (coordinates: 40.830 119.538) [4]
Coyote Spring (coordinates: 40.763 119.172) [5]
name unknown (coordinates: 40.948 119.002) [6]
name unknown (coordinates: 40.674 119.364)
Mud Springs (coordinates: 40.653 119.378)
Great Boiling Spring (coordinates: 40.662 119.365)
Fly Ranch (coordinates: 40.857 119.328)

Some of these are of recreational use, some are dangerous, some are mostly geological curiosities. Some are on private land.

[edit] Fly Geyser

At Fly Ranch, the Fly Geyser is one of two geysers at the ranch - the other being dormant, possibly because of the upheaval of the second geyser. The Fly Geyser continuously sprays hot water onto what was once desert land. This hot spring fountain is probably a leaking geothermal test well.^[4]