Formation of the Sierra Nevada Batholith: Magmatic and Tectonic Processes and Their Tempos
This comprehensive field guide takes you on a six-day, west-to-east geologic journey across the Mesozoic magmatic arc of the central Sierra Nevada in California. It contains a summary of field, structural, geochemical, and geochronologic data collected by a number of researchers on individual intrusions (Guadalupe Igneous Complex and nearby Hornitos pluton, Fine Gold Intrusive Suite, Yosemite Valley Intrusive Suite, Tuolumne Intrusive Complex). This guide also includes data on the basement terranes intruded by these intrusions, Mesozoic volcanic-sedimentary sections, and data derived of several Sierra Nevada-wide data sets (plutonic, volcanic and sedimentary geochronology, strain analyses, structures, and geochemistry). Syntheses of these data sets at the end of the guide focus on magmatic processes from the mineral to the arc scale, as well as contemporaneous tectonics, and the tempos controlling magmatism, deformation, exhumation, and erosion/redeposition in the Sierran arc.
Day 5: Mesozoic volcanic rocks of the central Sierra Nevada Arc
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Published:January 01, 2014
Abstract
To expand our evaluation of the Mesozoic Sierran arc, we need to consider the volcanic section that overlies the intrusive parts of the arc seen in Days 1–4. While doing so, we can discuss evidence for links between the magmatic and volcanic components of the arc, the nature of regional sedimentation and tectonism that accompanied active volcanism, and the challenges of estimating volume rates of volcanic activity in ancient arc systems. The most complete exposures of the volcanic section of the Mesozoic arc in the central Sierra occur in several pendants near the eastern topographic divide of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. These volcanic sections are exposed in the Saddlebag and Ritter Range pendants. We have completed new 1:24,000–1:10,000 scale mapping in four areas within these eastern pendants, which from north to south are: (1) Eagle Creek pendant around Twin Lakes, (2) the Virginia Canyon area, (3) the Saddlebag Lake pendant, and (4) the northern Ritter Range pendant…
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