Lower Mesozoic clastic rocks that unconformably overlie Paleozoic rocks within the Northern Sierra terrane provide clues regarding the evolution of the terrane during a 60 m.y. interval spanning the late Carnian through Bajocian. New detrital-zircon data provide fresh insights into the ages and provenance of these clastic rocks, together with new inferences about the Mesozoic tectonic evolution of the terrane.

Previous studies have shown that from the late Carnian to the Sinemurian (~40 m.y.), a 1-km-thick section of subaerial to shallow-marine clastic arc-derived sediment accumulated and shallow-marine carbonate was deposited. At the base of this section, detrital-zircon results suggest...