This paper is an in-depth review of the architecture and evolution of the Western Sierra Nevada metamorphic province. Firsthand field observations in a number of key areas provide new information about the province and the nature and timing of the Nevadan orogeny. Major units include the Northern Sierra terrane, Calaveras Complex, Feather River ultramafic belt, phyllite-greenschist belt, mélanges, and Foothills terrane. Important changes occur in all belts across the Placerville–Highway 50 corridor, which may separate a major culmination to the south from a structural depression to the north. North of the corridor, the Northern Sierra terrane consists of the Shoo Fly Complex and overlying Devonian to Jurassic–Cretaceous cover, and it represents a Jurassic continental margin arc. The western and lowest part of the Shoo Fly Complex contains numerous tectonic slivers, which, along with the Downieville fault, comprise a zone of west-vergent thrust imbrication. No structural evidence exists in this region for Permian–Triassic continental truncation, but the presence of slices from the Klamath Mountains province requires Triassic sinistral faulting prior to Jurassic thrusting. The Feather River ultramafic belt is an imbricate zone of slices of ultra-mafic rocks, Paleozoic amphibolite, and Triassic–Jurassic blueschist, with blueschist interleaved structurally between east-dipping serpentinite units. The Downieville fault and Feather River ultramafic belt are viewed as elements of a Triassic–Jurassic subduction complex, within which elements of the eastern Klamath subprovince were accreted to the western edge of the Northern Sierra terrane. Pre–Late Jurassic ties between the continental margin and the Foothills island arc are lacking. A Late Jurassic suture is marked by the faults between the Feather River ultramafic belt and the phyllite-greenschist belt. The phyllite-greenschist belt, an important tectonic unit along the length of the Western Sierra Nevada metamorphic province, mélanges, and the Foothills island arc terrane to the west were subducted beneath the Feather River ultramafic belt during the Late Jurassic Nevadan orogeny. South of the Placerville–Highway 50 corridor, the Northern Sierra terrane consists of the Shoo Fly Complex, which possibly contains structures related to Permian–Triassic continental truncation. The Shoo Fly was underthrust by the Calaveras Complex, a Triassic–Jurassic subduction complex. The Late Jurassic suture is marked by the Sonora fault between the Calaveras and the phyllite-greenschist belt (Don Pedro terrane). As to the north, the phyllite-greenschist belt and Foothills island arc terrane were imbricated within a subduction zone during the terminal Nevadan collision. The Don Pedro and Foothills terranes constitute a large-magnitude, west-vergent fold-and-thrust belt in which an entire primitive island-arc system was stacked, imbricated, folded, and underthrust beneath the continental margin during the Nevadan orogeny. The best age constraint on timing of Nevadan deformation is set by the 151–153 Ma Guadelupe pluton, which postdates and intruded a large-scale megafold and cleavage within the Mariposa Formation. Detailed structure throughout the Western Sierra Nevada metamorphic province shows that all Late Jurassic deformation relates to east-dipping, west-vergent thrusts and rules out Jurassic transpressive, strike-slip deformation. Early Cretaceous brittle faulting and development of gold-bearing quartz vein systems are viewed as a transpressive response to northward displacement of the entire Western Sierra Nevada metamorphic province along the Mojave–Snow Lake fault. The preferred model for Jurassic tectonic evolution presented herein is a new, detailed version of the long-debated arc-arc collision model (Molucca Sea–type) that accounts for previously enigmatic relations of various mélanges and fossiliferous blocks in the Western Sierra Nevada metamorphic province. The kinematics of west-vergent, east-dipping Jurassic thrusts, and the overwhelming structural evidence for Jurassic thrusting and shortening in the Western Sierra Nevada metamorphic province allow the depiction of key elements of Jurassic evolution via a series of two-dimensional cross sections.

The Eastern belt of the Sierra Nevada comprises an Ordovician(?) to Devonian(?) succession of psammites and pelites belonging to the Shoo Fly Complex, and is overlain by three Paleozoic to Mesozoic arc volcanic sequences. The northern part of the belt, the subject of this chapter, is divided into a series of discrete blocks by steeply dipping faults, considered to be eastward-directed thrusts. The metamorphic history of this region has been little investigated previously. It has been argued that low-grade metamorphism of the Eastern belt is a Nevadan orogenic effect; in contrast, it has also been suggested that metamorphism of the arc volcanic rocks was a result of burial effects in the arc environment. In this study the metamorphic grade of the area has been established using mineral assemblages in metabasites and pelites, combined with illite crystallinity and b 0 data from pelitic rocks. The Shoo Fly Complex underwent epizonal metamorphism under Barrovian-type conditions prior to the earliest arc volcanism. Metamorphic grade in the overlying arc volcanic rocks ranges from pumpellyite-actinolite facies in the strongly foliated rocks of the (westernmost) Butt Valley and Hough blocks, through prehnite-pumpellyite facies in the Keddie Ridge and Genesee blocks, to low anchizone to diagenetic grade in Jurassic rocks of the (easternmost) Mt. Jura and Kettle Rock blocks. There is evidence for at least three discrete regional metamorphic events in these arc rocks; one is interpreted as being related to the burial of the arc volcanic rocks, which reached prehnite-pumpellyite facies; this event was followed by deformation and pumpellyite-actinolite facies metamorphism during the Nevadan orogeny; a final episode of static, low-grade metamorphism, possibly due to tectonic loading effects, probably also resulted in pumpellyite-actinolite facies. Subsequently, rocks exposed in the extreme east of the region were affected by contact metamorphism during the emplacement of Sierra Nevada batholith granitoids.

The post-Cambrian and pre-Upper Devonian Shoo Fly Complex represents the remnants of an ancient subduction system. The Quartz Hill chert, a thrust-fault-bounded, chlorite-grade greenschist facies unit, is included in the Shoo Fly Complex, and consists of about 25 m of interstratified radiolarite and argillite. Rare earth element (REE) data derived from 15 samples indicate that the Quartz Hill chert contains two chemically distinct groups of rock. Six Group 1 specimens display relatively flat REE/PAAS (post-Archean average Australian shale) distribution patterns, no Ce anomaly, and a variable positive Eu anomaly. In contrast, nine Group 2 specimens exhibit no Ce anomalies, a variable positive Eu anomaly, and display REE/PAAS values that increase from La to Eu, and then decrease from Eu to Lu. The REE, Th, and Sc characteristics of Group 1 samples are like those in Cretaceous, Tertiary, and Quaternary marine sediments containing particles derived from magmatic arcs. In contrast, the REE, Th, and Sc characteristics of Group 2 specimens are suggestive of a mixture of magmatic arc material and alkaline basaltic particulate matter derived from a seamount or ocean island. Data presented here are consistent with the results from previous petrological and geochemical studies of rocks in the Shoo Fly Complex, and indicate that the Quartz Hill chert was deposited on the margin of an oceanic plate adjacent to a magmatic arc and a seamount(s) or ocean island(s). Thus, the data here and in the literature suggest that the REE, Th, and Sc characteristics of chert/argillite sequences deposited in or adjacent to active subduction systems are controlled primarily by source rocks in adjacent magmatic arcs, and in seamounts or ocean islands located within subducting plates.

Mesozoic sandstones from six rock units that underlie the Jurassic-Cretaceous arc of peninsular California appear to contain a mixture of late Paleozoic-early Mesozoic zircons and a mixture of Precambrian zircons averaging about 1,540 Ma. These data suggest that the detrital zircons were derived from the southwestern United States and northern Mexico during late Triassic-early Jurassic time. Two of six Paleozoic sandstones contain detrital zircons whose average U-Pb age is 1,500 Ma. This age is similar to the average age of Precambrian basement in adjacent Arizona and Sonora. However, three of the six Paleozoic sandstones contain zircons whose average U-Pb age is two billion years or greater. This age exceeds that of possible source rocks located in the southwestern Cordillera, but is similar to U-Pb ages for detrital zircon in the Shoo Fly Complex of the northern Sierra Nevada (Girty and Wardlaw, 1985; Miller and Saleeby, 1991).

The Ashgillian (Upper Ordovician) Montgomery Limestone occurs as slide blocks in melange of the Shoo Fly Complex, northern Sierra Nevada, northern California. Brachiopods and sphinctozoan sponges from the Montgomery Limestone have closest biogeographic ties to coeval faunas of the eastern Klamath Mountains (Yreka terrane), and in the case of the brachiopods, to east-central Alaska (Jones Ridge). The latter was part of North America in the Ordovician. A small collection of Montgomery rugose corals yielded one species that is known elsewhere only in the Yreka terrane and in northern Maine. Montgomery tabulate corals have affinities with contemporaneous faunas of the Yreka terrane, northern Europe/Asia, Australia, and eastern North America. The apparent absence of similar tabulate taxa in western North America may be an artifact of incomplete collecting. As a whole, the biogeographic data indicate that the Montgomery Limestone was deposited close enough to Ordovician North America for faunal interchange to occur, and during its deposition was probably relatively near that continent. A comparison of lithologic units of the Shoo Fly Complex with those of the Yreka terrane indicates that some units in each area have no counterparts in the other (e.g., schist of Skookum Gulch in the Yreka terrane), and other units have general similarities in age (where known) and lithology, but differ in detail. The Yreka terrane has been interpreted as the remnants of an Early Cambrian arc and Ordovician-Devonian arc–fore-arc–accretionary prism, and the Shoo Fly Complex as a fragment of a Devonian or older accretionary wedge. Available biogeographic and stratigraphic data can be reasonably explained, as has been done by earlier authors, by a paleogeography in which the Yreka terrane and Shoo Fly Complex were parts of the same arc-trench system but were situated at different points along the strike of the arc. Lateral changes along strike in tectonic conditions and source areas could account for the observed disparities.

In the northern Sierra Nevada, California, the pre–Upper Devonian Shoo Fly Complex has been subdivided into the following, from structurally lowest to structurally highest: (1) Lang sequence, (2) Duncan Peak chert, (3) Culbertson Lake allochthon, and (4) Sierra City melange. Detailed studies have been completed recently on the rocks in the Culbertson Lake allochthon in the Bowman Lake/Culbertson Lake area. The results of geochemical, sedimentologic, stratigraphic, and structural studies of rocks in the Culbertson Lake allochthon suggest that: (1) the allochthon is composed of a lower fault-bounded succession of basaltic rock and a complexly imbricated upper sandstone–dominated sequence; (2) the structurally lowest unit in the allochthon contains alkalic basalts that formed in a seamount or ocean island setting; (3) sedimentologic and stratigraphic patterns in the structurally higher units may be the result of sedimentation and deformation in a trench setting; (4) the allochthon is composed of a complex of northeast-dipping, thrust-fault–bounded slices, and is an imbricate structure; and (5) the imbricate structure, in terms of present-day geographic coordinates, formed as a result of generally westward-directed translations (i.e., northwest, west, or southwest) prior to the Late Devonian and probably after the Cambrian. Data presented here generally support models that portray the Shoo Fly Complex as having formed in a subduction complex setting that developed near enough to a continental landmass to receive sand-sized detritus derived from it. However, current data do not uniquely constrain the location of the continental landmass that provided sand-sized detritus to the Shoo Fly Complex, nor do they rule out the possibility that the sand-rich portions of the Shoo Fly Complex were deposited as part of a continental margin submarine fan system that was subsequently accreted and imbricated within a subduction complex. The continental landmass supplying continental detritus to the Shoo Fly Complex may have been located in western North America, or it may have been located somewhere in Panthalassa.

Through the work of a number of investigators, a tremendous amount of geochronological data with excellent geological control exists on the numerous ophiolitic assemblages of the Sierran-Klamath orogen. Distinct ophiolitic assemblages of latest Precambrian, Ordovician-Silurian, Carboniferous-Permian, Late Triassic–Early Jurassic and late Middle–Late Jurassic (Callovian-Oxfordian) ages are recognized. The geochronological data, in conjunction with structural and petrologic data, facilitate a relatively detailed analysis of the petrotectonic and structural-stratigraphic development of the orogen from the perspective of ophiolite basement geology. Insights into the plate tectonic settings of ophiolite genesis and emplacement are offered by an abundance of information that now exists on active oceanic island arcs and related environments. Remnants of abyssal lithosphere, boundary transform melange, extensional fore-arc igneous sequences, and interarc basin lithosphere are all preserved within the Sierran-Klamath assemblages. In general, the older assemblages or the older elements of polygenetic assemblages have greater affinities to abyssal lithosphere, whereas the younger assemblages or elements reflect suprasubduction zone environments of genesis. The upper Paleozoic through Jurassic assemblages occur in regional belts, and their tectonic, as well as petrogenetic, histories may be related in detail with some confidence to the tectonic development of the Cordilleran margin.

The Central and Feather River peridotite belts of the northern Sierra Nevada metamorphic belt constitute a major suture zone between Paleozoic–early Mesozoic continental-margin rocks (Shoo Fly Complex and superjacent strata) of the Eastern belt and Jurassic arc and ophiolitic rocks (Smartville Complex) of the Western belt. This suture zone is structurally complex and has previously been described as mélange. Our data suggest that six major fault-bounded rock assemblages are present across this zone. The faults are isoclinally folded and transposed along steep hinge planes, but have shallowly dipping enveloping surfaces. Rocks of the Eastern belt occupy the highest of five east-dipping thrust sheets which are technically overlain by a sixth, west-dipping thrust sheet. The Western belt rocks are built into a basement composed of the last thrust sheet and postdate the thrust faults. All these rocks and structures are cut by faults of the Late Jurassic Foothills fault system which bound the lithotectonic “belts” (Eastern belt, etc.). The Feather River peridotite belt consists of the Feather River peridotite and the Red Ant Schist, and is extended to include the newly recognized Devils Gate ophiolite. The Feather River peridotite is correlative with or intruded by the Devils Gate ophiolite, and together they constitute a nearly complete cogenetic or polygenetic Paleozoic ophiolite. The Red Ant Schist contains metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks with local blueschist parageneses; blueschist facies metamorphism is early Mesozoic or older. Several small outliers of Shoo Fly (Eastern belt) sandstone are present in the Feather River peridotite belt. The Central belt consists of the Calaveras Complex, the Fiddle Creek Complex, and the Slate Creek Complex. The late Paleozoic–early Mesozoic Calaveras Complex is an assemblage of phyllite-diamictite, chert, and minor volcanic rocks and marble in the eastern part of the Central belt. The Fiddle Creek Complex lies west of the Calaveras Complex and contains an intact stratigraphic succession, which includes, in ascending stratigraphic order, late Paleozoic ophiolitic mélange, pillow basalt with minor felsic tuff, Middle Triassic–Early Jurassic volcaniclastic and hemipelagic sedimentary rocks, and Middle–Late Jurassic(?) quartzose clastic rocks. The Slate Creek Complex is an Early Jurassic pseudostratigraphic sequence that contains a basal serpentinite-matrix mélange overlain by plutonic and volcanic rocks. The Western belt consists of the Middle–Late Jurassic (160 Ma) volcanic and intrusive rocks of the Smartville Complex and, at one locality, older tonalitic basement equivalent to the Slate Creek Complex. The Slate Creek Complex was juxtaposed against the other rock assemblages before formation of the Smartville Complex, so the Smartville Complex formed in situ. Crosscutting relations define three generations of macroscopic structures. The earliest structures include major mapped and cryptic, west-vergent (east-dipping) thrust faults that juxtapose, in descending structural order, the Shoo Fly Complex (Eastern belt), Feather River–Devils Gate Ophiolite, Red Ant Schist, Calaveras Complex, and Fiddle Creek Complex. These faults predate the east-vergent “Slate Creek thrust,” which carries the Slate Creek Complex over the Fiddle Creek Complex, Calaveras Complex, and Red Ant Schist. The Slate Creek thrust is cut by a pluton dated at about 165 Ma, which places an upper age constraint on assembly of the nappe pile. This nappe pile is cut and overprinted by the steep throughgoing faults (Foothills fault system), folds, and cleavages that dominate the structure of the area; this youngest set of structures makes up the Late Jurassic Nevadan orogeny. Eastward overthrusting of the Slate Complex along the Slate Creek thrust occurred after amalgamation of the other units. Eastward overthrusting was followed by rifting and arc magmatism represented by the Smartville Complex, then by Nevadan faulting, folding, and penetrative deformation. These data preclude the existence of a Late Jurassic suture or collision, but the Fiddle Creek and Slate Creek Complexes, both interpreted as remnants of Early Jurassic arcs, could have collided in the late Early Jurassic or early Middle Jurassic.