Field Guide to Plutons, Volcanoes, Faults, Reefs, Dinosaurs, and Possible Glaciation in Selected Areas of Arizona, California, and Nevada

This guidebook, prepared in conjunction with the 2008 joint meeting of the GSA Cordilleran and Rocky Mountain Sections, contains background information and road logs for eleven field trips in Nevada, Arizona, and California. Southern Nevada and adjoining areas contain a rich geologic history spanning the interval from the Paleoproterozoic to the present. Las Vegas lies at or near several critical geological junctures and localities including the structural boundary between the Colorado Plateau and Basin and Range, the physiographic boundary between the Great Basin and the southern Basin and Range, the eastern margin of the Sevier fold-and-thrust belt, the tectonically active Death Valley area, tilted and faulted volcanic-plutonic systems exposing the upper part of the crust, and the enigmatic “amagmatic zone.” With guides in this volume spanning the geologic record from the Ediacaran (late Neoproterozoic) to the Holocene, covering ground from the middle crust to the surface, and looking at topics from tectonics to paleontology, volcanism to glaciation, this volume offers something for everyone.
The mid-Miocene Wilson Ridge pluton and River Mountains volcanic section, Lake Mead area of Nevada and Arizona: Linking a volcanic and plutonic section
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Published:January 01, 2008
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CiteCitation
Denise Honn, Eugene I. Smith, 2008. "The mid-Miocene Wilson Ridge pluton and River Mountains volcanic section, Lake Mead area of Nevada and Arizona: Linking a volcanic and plutonic section", Field Guide to Plutons, Volcanoes, Faults, Reefs, Dinosaurs, and Possible Glaciation in Selected Areas of Arizona, California, and Nevada, Ernest M. Duebendorfer, Eugene I. Smith
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Abstract
This field trip will visit the River Mountains volcanic section (12.17 ± 0.02 to 13.45 ± 0.02 Ma) and Wilson Ridge pluton (13.10 ± 0.11 Ma) in southern Nevada and northwestern Arizona. Although this volcanic-plutonic system was disrupted by the Saddle Island detachment fault during Miocene crustal extension, there are convincing lithological, mineralogical, geochemical and geochronological indicators that suggest a cogenetic relationship. The trip consists of 17 stops that emphasize evidence that links the volcanic and plutonic sections. In addition we will visit the Saddle Island detachment fault at its type locality on Saddle Island.
- Arizona
- Basin and Range Province
- Cenozoic
- Clark County Nevada
- detachment faults
- faults
- field trips
- guidebook
- intrusions
- Lake Mead
- magmatism
- middle Miocene
- Miocene
- Mohave County Arizona
- Neogene
- Nevada
- North America
- plutons
- River Mountains
- road log
- Tertiary
- United States
- volcanism
- Wilson Ridge Pluton
- Saddle Island Fault