Exposure of a late cretaceous layered mafic-felsic magma system in the central Sierra Nevada batholith, California

1995 ◽  
Vol 120 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. S. Coleman ◽  
A. F. Glazner ◽  
J. S. Miller ◽  
K. J. Bradford ◽  
T. P. Frost ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Felsic Magma ◽  
Sierra Nevada Batholith ◽  
Magma System

Exposure of a Late Cretaceous layered mafic-felsic magma system in the central Sierra Nevada batholith, California

1995 ◽  
Vol 120 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-136
Author(s):  
D. S. Coleman ◽  
A. F. Glazner ◽  
J. S. Miller ◽  
K. J. Bradford ◽  
T. P. Frost ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Felsic Magma ◽  
Sierra Nevada Batholith ◽  
Magma System

Tectonic evolution of the central California margin as reflected by detrital zircon composition in the Mount Diablo region

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jared T. Gooley ◽  
Marty Grove ◽  
Stephan A. Graham
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Late Miocene ◽  
Detrital Zircon ◽  
Middle Eocene ◽  
Forearc Basin ◽  
Zircon Age ◽  
Central California ◽  
Sierra Nevada Batholith ◽  
Early Paleogene

ABSTRACT The Mount Diablo region has been located within a hypothesized persistent corridor for clastic sediment delivery to the central California continental margin over the past ~100 m.y. In this paper, we present new detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology and integrate it with previously established geologic and sedimentologic relationships to document how Late Cretaceous through Cenozoic trends in sandstone composition varied through time in response to changing tectonic environments and paleogeography. Petrographic composition and detrital zircon age distributions of Great Valley forearc stratigraphy demonstrate a transition from axial drainage of the Klamath Mountains to a dominantly transverse Sierra Nevada plutonic source throughout Late Cretaceous–early Paleogene time. The abrupt presence of significant pre-Permian and Late Cretaceous–early Paleogene zircon age components suggests an addition of extraregional sediment derived from the Idaho batholith region and Challis volcanic field into the northern forearc basin by early–middle Eocene time as a result of continental extension and unroofing. New data from the Upper Cenozoic strata in the East Bay region show a punctuated voluminous influx (>30%) of middle Eocene–Miocene detrital zircon age populations that corresponds with westward migration and cessation of silicic ignimbrite eruptions in the Nevada caldera belt (ca. 43–40, 26–23 Ma). Delivery of extraregional sediment to central California diminished by early Miocene time as renewed erosion of the Sierra Nevada batholith and recycling of forearc strata were increasingly replaced by middle–late Miocene andesitic arc–derived sediment that was sourced from Ancestral Cascade volcanism (ca. 15–10 Ma) in the northern Sierra Nevada. Conversely, Cenozoic detrital zircon age distributions representative of the Mesozoic Sierra Nevada batholith and radiolarian chert and blueschist-facies lithics reflect sediment eroded from locally exhumed Mesozoic subduction complex and forearc basin strata. Intermingling of eastern- and western-derived provenance sources is consistent with uplift of the Coast Ranges and reversal of sediment transport associated with the late Miocene transpressive deformation along the Hayward and Calaveras faults. These provenance trends demonstrate a reorganization and expansion of the western continental drainage catchment in the California forearc during the late transition to flat-slab subduction of the Farallon plate, subsequent volcanism, and southwestward migration of the paleodrainage divide during slab rollback, and ultimately the cessation of convergent margin tectonics and initiation of the continental transform margin in north-central California.

High-precision geochronology requires that ultrafast mantle-derived magmatic fluxes built the transcrustal Bear Valley Intrusive Suite, Sierra Nevada, California, USA

Geology ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 106-110
Author(s):  
Benjamin Z. Klein ◽  
Oliver Jagoutz ◽  
Jahandar Ramezani
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Ionization Mass ◽  
Crustal Material ◽  
Crustal Assimilation ◽  
Sierra Nevada Batholith ◽  
Magma System ◽  
Intrusive Suite ◽  
Hf Isotopic Composition ◽  
Lower Crustal

Abstract The Bear Valley Intrusive Suite (BVIS), located in the southernmost Sierra Nevada Batholith (SNB; California, USA) exposes a transcrustal magma system consisting of lower-crustal gabbros and volumetrically extensive middle- and upper-crustal tonalites. New chemical abrasion–isotope dilution–thermal ionization mass spectrometry U-Pb geochronology shows that the bulk of this ca. 100 Ma magmatic system crystallized in 1.39 ± 0.06 m.y. and was constructed with ultrahigh magmatic fluxes (∼250 km3/km/m.y.). This magmatic flux is roughly a factor of three greater than estimates for the SNB-wide flux during the Late Cretaceous flare-up, showing that individual magmatic systems can be constructed at extremely rapid rates. Further, the Hf isotopic composition of the BVIS (εHfi ∼–2 to +4) only allows for limited (∼25%) crustal assimilation. Our results show that the high magmatic fluxes recorded in the BVIS were dominantly derived from the mantle, and that “flare-up”–like local magmatic fluxes can be produced without extraordinary assimilation of crustal material.

Late Cretaceous age of fractures in the Sierra Nevada batholith, California

Geology ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 18 (12) ◽  
pp. 1248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Segall ◽  
Edwin H. McKee ◽  
Stephen J. Martel ◽  
Brent D. Turrin
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Late Cretaceous ◽  
Sierra Nevada Batholith
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