ABSTRACT Miocene–Pliocene volcanism around Lake Tahoe, California/Nevada, USA, part of the Southern Ancestral Cascades arc, ceased at around 3 Ma as the southern edge of the subducting Juan de Fuca plate migrated north of the region. Post–3 Ma, arc volcanism continued north of Lake Tahoe, but modern subduction and arc volcanism now occur only north of the Lassen volcanic center. Miocene–Pliocene Tahoe arc lavas appear to include an older mantle source component that is not common in Quaternary Lassen arc rocks. The goal of this work was to investigate how magma sources and/or volcanic processes transitioned in the northern Sierra Nevada between Lake Tahoe and Lassen. The Sierra Nevada between Lake Tahoe and Lassen, or the North Sierra segment of the Ancestral Cascades, includes eroded remnants of Ancestral Cascades volcanic rocks, including lava flow complexes, intrusions, and landslide/debris-flow deposits. Lava samples from the North Sierra segment include calc-alkaline basalts to dacites, with rare rhyolites. All North Sierra segment lavas exhibit normalized incompatible-element patterns with negative Nb, Ta, and Ti anomalies and positive Pb, Sr, and Ba anomalies. The North Sierra segment is geochemically split into two parts: a northern group including lavas from the Susanville area, and a southern group consisting of arc rocks from the Portola, Sierraville, Henness Pass, and Sagehen areas. With the exception of the Sagehen area, the North Sierra segment shows little variation in radiogenic isotope ratios with SiO 2 , indicating that assimilation of crustal rocks was outweighed by liquid-crystal crystallization during magma evolution. Trace-element and isotopic ratios in mafic rocks of the northern group are more typical of Lassen area Quaternary volcanic rocks, whereas those of southern group mafic rocks are more typical of Miocene–Pliocene arc lavas of the Lake Tahoe area. The isotopic distinction between Lassen-like and Tahoe-like arc lavas is likely controlled by basement age and lithology, where Lassen-like magmas were derived largely by mantle wedge melting and Tahoe-like magmas were primarily partial melts of metasomatized Sierran lithospheric mantle. The Susanville area represents the “transition zone” between these two geochemically distinct primary magma sources.

ABSTRACT Hafnium isotope ratios in Late Jurassic zircon from the Summit Gabbro provide geochemical evidence for rifting at ca. 148 Ma through the southern Sierra Nevada arc crust. Previous evidence for intra-arc extension includes a linear distribution of early Mesozoic volcano-sedimentary deposits located within the regional footprint of the ~600-km-long Independence dike swarm. In this study, latest Jurassic rifting through the entire thickness of the arc crust is supported by an abrupt, 40-εHf i -unit isotopic pull-up that records the incorporation of depleted-mantle partial melts into basaltic magmas that rapidly migrated into the upper arc crust. Isotopic context for this latest Jurassic pull-up is provided by Permian through Cretaceous zircon xenocrysts sampled by ca. 85–78 Ma dikes and sills that sampled the crust underlying the eastern Sierra Nevada range crest. Summit Gabbro bodies define a northwest-trending lineament paralleling the Kern Plateau shear zone, a geometry consistent with previous interpretations that the Kern Plateau shear zone originated as a late Paleozoic sinistral transform fault that evolved to a normal fault accommodating early Mesozoic intra-arc extension. New zircon U-Pb geochronology data coupled with field observations and whole-rock geochemistry serve as the basis to reclassify Summit gabbros and diorites as latest Jurassic and to motivate definition of the bimodal Summit igneous complex (151.0 ± 1.7–146.1 ± 1.2 Ma; N = 15) as also including coeval gabbro-granite dikes of the Osa Creek ring complex and the newly defined Tübatulabal hypabyssal-volcanic series. Tight age constraints support correlation of the Summit igneous complex to the regionally extensive, ca. 148 Ma Independence dike swarm. Multiple lines of evidence support latest Jurassic Sierran arc magmagenesis within a north-northwest–trending, sinistral transtensional regime, including: (1) subparallel orientations of the Independence dike swarm and aligned Summit Gabbro intrusions; (2) overlapping and bimodal compositions in both suites; and (3) the dramatic Hf isotope pull-up in zircons from Summit gabbro-diorites, recording a short-lived increase in the proportion of isotopically primitive mafic magmas intruding into the shallow arc crust. Though clearly differentiated, the composition of one gabbroic dike is the most primitive composition reported in the Sierra Nevada arc to date. The footprint of an intra-arc graben produced by early Mesozoic extension in eastern California is constrained by the Independence dike swarm, the Kern Plateau shear zone, and the Summit igneous complex, along with distributions of Triassic–Jurassic volcano-sedimentary deposits. Coupling the history of motion along the Kern Plateau shear zone with evidence for local extension beginning in the Permian–Triassic arc, we hypothesize that Mesozoic intra-arc faulting was strongly influenced by north-northwest–trending structures inherited from a mid- to late Paleozoic sinistral transpressional-transtensional plate boundary that extended for thousands of kilometers along the western boundary of Laurentia. We assemble a Permian–Jurassic time line of intra-arc extension within the plate margin locally transitioning from sinistral transform to convergent, one that culminated in latest Jurassic rifting through the entire crust underlying the Kern Plateau.

ABSTRACT This field trip traverses a cross section of northern Sierra Nevada geology and landscape along two major corridors, Highway 49 (Yuba Pass) and Highway 70. These highways, and adjacent roadways, offer roadcuts, outcrops, and overviews through diverse pre-Cenozoic metamorphic rocks along the Laurentian margin, Mesozoic batholithic rocks, and Miocene volcanic rocks. Observing this array of rocks on a single trip provides an opportunity to examine the progression of tectonic forces in this region since the Paleozoic Era. Inspiration for this trip is a 1:100,000-scale geologic map and geophysical maps of the Portola 30′ × 60′ quadrangle that integrate decades of published and unpublished mapping with new geophysical data. The quadrangle map will seamlessly depict a geologically complex region along the boundary between the Sierra Nevada and Basin and Range provinces, dominated by transtensional tectonics of the Walker Lane. This field trip highlights many of the major units of the geologic map and will also feature new geochronological data on plutonic rocks.

1. ABSTRACT The geology of the northern Sierra Nevada of California records >400 million years of active plate margin tectonic events as a part of the North American Cordilleran orogenic belt. This field-trip guide provides geologic background and description of field-trip stops for a two-day field trip of the 2023 Geological Society of America Cordilleran Section Meeting based in Reno, Nevada. In two days, we cannot sample the complete geologic record of the northern Sierra Nevada, so this guide does not provide an exhaustive review of this geology. We will focus on certain aspects of the geology that have been the subject of recent research and present some previously unpublished observations and interpretations including: (1) distinguishing between subduction complexes and deformed assemblages that overlay subduction zones; (2) evidence for subduction initiation, recorded in high-pressure ( P ), high-temperature ( T ) amphibolites and possibly greenschist facies rocks structurally beneath them; (3) finding of high- P , high- T amphibolite blocks in mélange zones in subduction complex units accreted structurally beneath intact high- P , high- T amphibolite horizons; (4) differences in stream profiles between southern Cascade and northern Sierra drainages, suggesting different forcing mechanisms for stream erosion in those regions; and (5) complex relationships between stream incision, volcanic deposition, and Late Cenozoic faulting. • DEDICATION • This field–trip guide is dedicated to Eldridge Moores (1938–2018) and Jason Saleeby (1948–2023) who were giants in Sierra Nevada geologic research. Eldridge passed away in October 2018 while leading a field trip in this area on which the leaders of the current field trip (JW, DS) were participants. Jason passed away during the writing of this guide. As will be clear from reading this guide, the saying “standing on the shoulders of giants” applies.

ABSTRACT The Laramide foreland belt comprises a broad region of thick-skinned, contractional deformation characterized by an anastomosing network of basement-cored arches and intervening basins that developed far inboard of the North American Cordilleran plate margin during the Late Cretaceous to Paleogene. Laramide deformation was broadly coincident in space and time with development of a flat-slab segment along part of the Cordilleran margin. This slab flattening was marked by a magmatic gap in the Sierra Nevada and Mojave arc sectors, an eastward jump of limited igneous activity from ca. 80 to 60 Ma, a NE-migrating wave of dynamic subsidence and subsequent uplift across the foreland, and variable hydration and cooling of mantle lithosphere during slab dewatering as recorded by xenoliths. The Laramide foreland belt developed within thick lithospheric mantle, Archean and Proterozoic basement with complex preexisting fabrics, and thin sedimentary cover. These attributes are in contrast to the thin-skinned Sevier fold-and-thrust belt to the west, which developed within thick passive-margin strata that overlay previously rifted and thinned lithosphere. Laramide arches are bounded by major reverse faults that typically dip 25°–40°, have net slips of ~3–20 km, propagate upward into folded sedimentary cover rocks, and flatten into a lower-crustal detachment or merge into diffuse lower-crustal shortening and buckling. Additional folds and smaller-displacement reverse faults developed along arch flanks and in associated basins. Widespread layer-parallel shortening characterized by the development of minor fault sets and subtle grain-scale fabrics preceded large-scale faulting and folding. Arches define a regional NW- to NNW-trending fabric across Wyoming to Colorado, but individual arches are curved and vary in trend from N-S to E-W. Regional shortening across the Laramide foreland was oriented WSW-ENE, similar to the direction of relative motion between the North American and Farallon plates, but shortening directions were locally refracted along curved and obliquely trending arches, partly related to reactivation of preexisting basement weaknesses. Shortening from large-scale structures varied from ~10%–15% across Wyoming and Colorado to <5% in the Colorado Plateau, which may have had stronger crust, and <5% along the northeastern margin of the belt, where differential stress was likely less. Synorogenic strata deposited in basins and thermochronologic data from basement rocks record protracted arch uplift, exhumation, and cooling starting ca. 80 Ma in the southern Colorado Plateau and becoming younger northeastward to ca. 60 Ma in northern Wyoming and central Montana, consistent with NE migration of a flat-slab segment. Basement-cored uplifts in southwest Montana, however, do not fit this pattern, where deformation and rapid inboard migration of igneous activity started at ca. 80 Ma, possibly related to development of a slab window associated with subduction of the Farallon-Kula Ridge. Cessation of contractional deformation began at ca. 50 Ma in Montana to Wyoming, followed by a southward-migrating transition to extension and flare-up in igneous activity, interpreted to record rollback of the Farallon slab. We present a model for the tectonic evolution of the Laramide belt that combines broad flat-slab subduction, stress transfer to the North American plate from end loading along a lithospheric keel and increased basal traction, upward stress transfer through variably sheared lithospheric mantle, diffuse lower-crustal shortening, and focused upper-crustal faulting influenced by preexisting basement weaknesses.