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The coordinates specified should be -ve.
Currently pasting into google earth sends us somewhere into Japan or China I cannot verify all of them, but I know they aren't correct as is.
I looked through the Wikipedia policies and, as I understand them, I think my addition of a link to my own web page about the Black Rock Desert should not be controversial. Though I needed to post this explanation to avoid appearance of a conflict of interest. Some notes:
Good enough? Ikluft 10:44, 7 July 2007 (UTC)
I clarified the existing rocketry info and added some to make it more complete. I added the AeroPAC and AHPRA links that I suggested above. Instead of just listing BALLS, I listed all the major HPR launches which occur at Black Rock. I categorized the page under Model rocketry. Please double check correct Wikipedia formatting and neutrality were observed. Ikluft 01:18, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
I did some linking and categorizing to bring together the pages of the Black Rock Desert region of Nevada.
I've added Category:Black Rock Desert and Template:Black Rock Desert. The template contains links to other pages in the region, and makes them navigable among the pages of the region. The category lists pages related to the region. More are in the category than use the template, because pages had to be primarily about Black Rock to be given the template.
Once this bound together the pages for the region, I added the Black Rock Desert to the list of regions in Template:Nevada and put the Nevada template on the Black Rock Desert page. Ikluft ( talk) 04:36, 29 December 2007 (UTC)
I'd like to discuss removing the image of the BLM Eight Mile Sign from the Black Rock Desert page. The reason is that this is a picture of a sign, the desert is barely visible. As an analogy, if this were an article about the Eiffel Tower, would we have a picture of a sign that said "Eiffel Tower"? There are plenty of good photos of the Black Rock Desert that could be used. A picture of the Black Rock might be nice, or just remove it and keep the picture of the desert below. Comments? Cxbrx ( talk) 17:38, 30 December 2007 (UTC)
What about the "Considered one of the flattest surfaces on the earth" text? This is vague and not very encyclopedic. It is tagged with a "citation needed". The question is, considered by whom? Looking at the web, many people misidentify the Black Rock Desert as the flattest place on Earth. What does it really mean to be flattest? Does it mean that the surface follows the curvature of the earth or that it really is planar? I'm certain that the Salar de Uyuni (10,582 km²) in Bolivia is the largest salt flat in the world and therefore fairly certain that it is the flattest place on earth because of how the salt flows like a liquid. (see also [ [1]]). The dry lake portion of the Black Rock Desert does have some slope to it, water does collect at the north end and in the middle, topo maps and photos indicate this. Perhaps we should consider removing this unless we can get something really citable?
I'm also wondering about the area measurement of 1000 square miles (2600 km²). Both Encyclopedia Brittanica and apparently the NY Times Almanac give 1000 square miles or 2600 km², 1000 square miles is an area 31 miles square, so I'm not sure what this number means. Most definitions of the Black Rock Desert include both arms of the desert, which is much more than 31 miles North-South or East-West. I'm just not sure what this number really measures: Does it measure the flat area of the "Playa" or does it include the North and South arms. BTW - Bonneville Salt Flats comes in at 412 km². Any ideas? Cxbrx ( talk) 04:39, 31 December 2007 (UTC)
I added a geobox to the page. Though many of the fields left blank wouldn't make any sense, some do. Feel free to add any relevant (and of course either referenced or non-controversial) information to it. Ikluft ( talk) 11:07, 8 January 2008 (UTC)
I did some edits to make the page more safety-conscious. The article is starting to look more serious so it better not neglect serious matters like this. I added "Hazards of travel in the Black Rock Desert" because we'd be endangering lives if Wikipedia made it look easy to go there and didn't mention the dangers of traveling in the desert. Also, the section on "Hot springs in the Black Rock Desert region" needed some intro text and, well, an overhaul. I added links to BLM's "stay out and stay alive" campaign about hot springs, and the RGJ article about the lawsuit that led to it. I also removed most of the hot springs that were listed apparently gratuituously. Just the main three well-known springs remain on the list. And though they aren't controversial, we should try to dig up a reference for them too. Ikluft ( talk) 11:17, 8 January 2008 (UTC)
There is also a black rock desert in Utah, near Filmore. It would be nice to change the name of this page to reflect that this article is specific to the black rock desert in Nevada, and not to the one in Utah. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.186.207.54 ( talk) 18:56, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
User:Fayenatic_london added Black Rock Desert to the Salt Pans category which I feel is incorrect, so I'm reverting. The Black Rock Desert is not a salt pan, it is a playa, dry lake, alkali flat or mud flat. From personal observation, the Black Rock Desert has very little, if any Halite. The Black Rock Desert consists of unstratified, somewhat alkali clay or mud that does not taste salty. At best, I've possibly observed a very thin (<1mm) crust of white a white mineral that might be salt. However, Wikipedia is not about original research so I looked at Google Scholar, and I was not able to find a reputable geological reference that refers to the Black Rock Desert as a salt pan. Many non-scientific books and articles refer to the Black Rock Desert as a salt flat or salt pan, but this is not correct.
{{
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help) The abstract says "The resulting deposits consist of alternating layers (millimetres to decimetres) of halite and mud". The Black Rock Desert does not have such alternating layers.I'm open to discussion on this, but I'd like to see some citations from the geological literature. Cxbrx ( talk) 04:55, 21 May 2008 (UTC)
I did some cleanups and reorganization trying to raise the article's assessment from the current C class. Take a look at WP:BCLASS and see what else it needs to get there. Ikluft ( talk) 00:09, 13 October 2008 (UTC)
Thanks for the help that you and others have done with updating the references and some other clean-ups. I also went through and tidied up some more things as well. How do things look toward getting the article up to the next step at WP:BCLASS? Or if we're there now, then please go ahead and assess it. Ikluft ( talk) 15:55, 30 October 2008 (UTC)
In 2009, some edits resulted in needing cleanup of the references. I've cleaned them up, which should retain the article's Class B criteria. Let's finish up the review of coverage and grammar to finally get it up to Class B. Ikluft ( talk) 10:07, 18 January 2010 (UTC)
This article needs some expert help on layout. The series of infoboxes and images result in the [edit] tags being bunched up in unhelpful places. I can't figure out how to fix it in a way that looks OK regardless of the width of the browser window. - Fayenatic (talk) 21:57, 15 May 2010 (UTC)
This is the
talk page for discussing improvements to the
Black Rock Desert article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject. |
Article policies
|
Find sources: Google ( books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL |
Archives: 1 |
![]() | This article is rated B-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||
|
The coordinates specified should be -ve.
Currently pasting into google earth sends us somewhere into Japan or China I cannot verify all of them, but I know they aren't correct as is.
I looked through the Wikipedia policies and, as I understand them, I think my addition of a link to my own web page about the Black Rock Desert should not be controversial. Though I needed to post this explanation to avoid appearance of a conflict of interest. Some notes:
Good enough? Ikluft 10:44, 7 July 2007 (UTC)
I clarified the existing rocketry info and added some to make it more complete. I added the AeroPAC and AHPRA links that I suggested above. Instead of just listing BALLS, I listed all the major HPR launches which occur at Black Rock. I categorized the page under Model rocketry. Please double check correct Wikipedia formatting and neutrality were observed. Ikluft 01:18, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
I did some linking and categorizing to bring together the pages of the Black Rock Desert region of Nevada.
I've added Category:Black Rock Desert and Template:Black Rock Desert. The template contains links to other pages in the region, and makes them navigable among the pages of the region. The category lists pages related to the region. More are in the category than use the template, because pages had to be primarily about Black Rock to be given the template.
Once this bound together the pages for the region, I added the Black Rock Desert to the list of regions in Template:Nevada and put the Nevada template on the Black Rock Desert page. Ikluft ( talk) 04:36, 29 December 2007 (UTC)
I'd like to discuss removing the image of the BLM Eight Mile Sign from the Black Rock Desert page. The reason is that this is a picture of a sign, the desert is barely visible. As an analogy, if this were an article about the Eiffel Tower, would we have a picture of a sign that said "Eiffel Tower"? There are plenty of good photos of the Black Rock Desert that could be used. A picture of the Black Rock might be nice, or just remove it and keep the picture of the desert below. Comments? Cxbrx ( talk) 17:38, 30 December 2007 (UTC)
What about the "Considered one of the flattest surfaces on the earth" text? This is vague and not very encyclopedic. It is tagged with a "citation needed". The question is, considered by whom? Looking at the web, many people misidentify the Black Rock Desert as the flattest place on Earth. What does it really mean to be flattest? Does it mean that the surface follows the curvature of the earth or that it really is planar? I'm certain that the Salar de Uyuni (10,582 km²) in Bolivia is the largest salt flat in the world and therefore fairly certain that it is the flattest place on earth because of how the salt flows like a liquid. (see also [ [1]]). The dry lake portion of the Black Rock Desert does have some slope to it, water does collect at the north end and in the middle, topo maps and photos indicate this. Perhaps we should consider removing this unless we can get something really citable?
I'm also wondering about the area measurement of 1000 square miles (2600 km²). Both Encyclopedia Brittanica and apparently the NY Times Almanac give 1000 square miles or 2600 km², 1000 square miles is an area 31 miles square, so I'm not sure what this number means. Most definitions of the Black Rock Desert include both arms of the desert, which is much more than 31 miles North-South or East-West. I'm just not sure what this number really measures: Does it measure the flat area of the "Playa" or does it include the North and South arms. BTW - Bonneville Salt Flats comes in at 412 km². Any ideas? Cxbrx ( talk) 04:39, 31 December 2007 (UTC)
I added a geobox to the page. Though many of the fields left blank wouldn't make any sense, some do. Feel free to add any relevant (and of course either referenced or non-controversial) information to it. Ikluft ( talk) 11:07, 8 January 2008 (UTC)
I did some edits to make the page more safety-conscious. The article is starting to look more serious so it better not neglect serious matters like this. I added "Hazards of travel in the Black Rock Desert" because we'd be endangering lives if Wikipedia made it look easy to go there and didn't mention the dangers of traveling in the desert. Also, the section on "Hot springs in the Black Rock Desert region" needed some intro text and, well, an overhaul. I added links to BLM's "stay out and stay alive" campaign about hot springs, and the RGJ article about the lawsuit that led to it. I also removed most of the hot springs that were listed apparently gratuituously. Just the main three well-known springs remain on the list. And though they aren't controversial, we should try to dig up a reference for them too. Ikluft ( talk) 11:17, 8 January 2008 (UTC)
There is also a black rock desert in Utah, near Filmore. It would be nice to change the name of this page to reflect that this article is specific to the black rock desert in Nevada, and not to the one in Utah. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.186.207.54 ( talk) 18:56, 21 January 2008 (UTC)
User:Fayenatic_london added Black Rock Desert to the Salt Pans category which I feel is incorrect, so I'm reverting. The Black Rock Desert is not a salt pan, it is a playa, dry lake, alkali flat or mud flat. From personal observation, the Black Rock Desert has very little, if any Halite. The Black Rock Desert consists of unstratified, somewhat alkali clay or mud that does not taste salty. At best, I've possibly observed a very thin (<1mm) crust of white a white mineral that might be salt. However, Wikipedia is not about original research so I looked at Google Scholar, and I was not able to find a reputable geological reference that refers to the Black Rock Desert as a salt pan. Many non-scientific books and articles refer to the Black Rock Desert as a salt flat or salt pan, but this is not correct.
{{
cite journal}}
: |access-date=
requires |url=
(
help); Unknown parameter |month=
ignored (
help).{{
cite journal}}
: |access-date=
requires |url=
(
help); Unknown parameter |coauthor=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (
help); Unknown parameter |month=
ignored (
help) The abstract says "The resulting deposits consist of alternating layers (millimetres to decimetres) of halite and mud". The Black Rock Desert does not have such alternating layers.I'm open to discussion on this, but I'd like to see some citations from the geological literature. Cxbrx ( talk) 04:55, 21 May 2008 (UTC)
I did some cleanups and reorganization trying to raise the article's assessment from the current C class. Take a look at WP:BCLASS and see what else it needs to get there. Ikluft ( talk) 00:09, 13 October 2008 (UTC)
Thanks for the help that you and others have done with updating the references and some other clean-ups. I also went through and tidied up some more things as well. How do things look toward getting the article up to the next step at WP:BCLASS? Or if we're there now, then please go ahead and assess it. Ikluft ( talk) 15:55, 30 October 2008 (UTC)
In 2009, some edits resulted in needing cleanup of the references. I've cleaned them up, which should retain the article's Class B criteria. Let's finish up the review of coverage and grammar to finally get it up to Class B. Ikluft ( talk) 10:07, 18 January 2010 (UTC)
This article needs some expert help on layout. The series of infoboxes and images result in the [edit] tags being bunched up in unhelpful places. I can't figure out how to fix it in a way that looks OK regardless of the width of the browser window. - Fayenatic (talk) 21:57, 15 May 2010 (UTC)