The Late Cenozoic Evolution of the Tuolumne River, Central Sierra Nevada, California
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The late Cenozoic evolution of the Tuolumne River, central Sierra Nevada, California N. KING HUBER U.S. Geological Survey, 345 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, California 94025 ABSTRACT Rancheria Mountain suggests that uplift had ancient prevolcanic channel of the Tuolumne been underway for some time before the vol- River. The volcanic rocks also help to date that Erosional remnants of volcanic rock depos- canic infilling. This timing is compatible with channel and make its reconstruction useful for ited in a lO-m.y.-old channel of the Tuolumne evidence from the upper San Joaquin River. estimating both Sierran tilt and the amount and River permit its partial reconstruction. Pro- Hetch Hetchy Valley on the Tuolumne is a rate of postvolcanic incision of the Tuolumne jection of the reconstructed channel west to much "fresher" glaciated valley than is River. Comparisons can then be made with sim- the Central Valley and east to the range crest, Yosemite Valley. Hetch Hetchy was filled to ilar estimates from the upper San Joaquin River. together with several assumptions about the the brim with glacial ice as recently as All data in this study were derived from topo- position of the hinge line and changes in 15,000-20,000 yr ago (Tioga glaciation), graphic maps at a scale of 1:62,500 with contour channel gradient, allows estimates of the whereas Yosemite Valley probably has not intervals of 80 or 100 ft, and all calculations amount of uplift at the range crest during the been filled for 750,000 yr or more (Sherwin therefore were made in United States customary past 10 m.y. At Tioga Pass, this amounts to as glaciation). Thus the upper reaches of Yosem- units. The results have been converted to metric much as 1,830 m, as compared to the 2,150 m ite Valley cliffs have been shaped by spalling units, but customary units are also retained, estimated in an earlier study for Deadman rather than by glacial scour and are much in parenthesis, for elevations, gradients, and Pass at the San Joaquin River 30 km to the more irregular than those in Hetch Hetchy. uplift calculations derived from them, to facili- south. Comparison of the geometry of these tate comparison with the maps and verify river systems leads to the conclusion that 10 INTRODUCTION calculations. m.y. ago an ancestral range of hills occupied the present site of the Sierran crest, and, al- Many studies have demonstrated that the LATE CENOZOIC VOLCANIC though of relatively moderate relief, it was a Sierra Nevada was uplifted during the late ACTIVITY barrier to westward drainage even before late Cenozoic to form the present range (for exam- Cenozoic uplift. At that time, the San Joaquin ple, Lindgren, 1911; Christensen, 1966; Huber, From about 20 m.y. ago to about 5 m.y. ago, River was apparently the only river flowing 1981), the central and northern Sierra having vast volumes of volcanic material were erupted westward across the range from well south of been tilted westward as a relatively rigid block from a belt of volcanoes near what is now the Mount Whitney north to Sonora Pass. The hinged near the eastern margin of the Central Sierran crest north of Yosemite National Park Tuolumne River evidently never extended Valley of California (Fig. 1). A recent study of (Durrell, 1966; Slemmons, 1966). During this east of this range. the late Cenozoic evolution of the San Joaquin late Cenozoic volcanism, the Sierra Nevada Comparison of the ancient channel with River basin within the Sierra indicated that up- north of Yosemite was virtually buried by lava the modern channel of the Tuolumne River lift of the range may have been underway by 25 flows, tuff, and lahars. The volcanic material permits analysis of the later evolution of the m.y. ago, but at a relatively low rate; the uplift traveled as far as the western Sierran foothills river system and the development of Hetch rate increased with time and may still be increas- and the Central Valley. Some of it traveled south Hetchy Valley and the Grand Canyon of the ing (Huber, 1981). over the present drainage divide from the Stanis- Tuolumne. At Rancheria Mountain, where The Tuolumne River is the northernmost of laus into the Tuolumne drainage basin. Three the volcanic "dam" in the ancient channel the major rivers draining the west slope of the separate units of this volcanic extravaganza— was highest, the river was forced to shift lat- Sierra Nevada whose course was not totally dis- lahar, a latite lava flow, and a welded tuff— erally southward around the dam and adja- rupted by the voluminous lahars and other vol- successively flowed down the valley of a cent to the volcanic infilling, and start its new canic rocks that buried most of the northern south-flowing tributary of the ancestral Tuo- channel in granitic bedrock. Near Rancheria Sierra. I have found no evidence for any vol- lumne River and into the main channel in the Mountain, as much as 1,525 m of new chan- canic disruption of the eastern third of the main vicinity of Rancheria Mountain northeast of nel incision has taken place in the past 10 trunk of the Tuolumne, and it remains in its Hetch Hetchy (Figs. 2,3,4). The latite flow and m.y., and the modern channel is about 915 m original channel. The western two-thirds, al- welded tuff have not been preserved beyond the lower than the abandoned channel. An unde- though shifted laterally, follows closely the pre- vicinity of Rancheria Mountain, and their origi- termined amount of this downcutting was volcanic channel for most of the distance to the nal extent is conjectural. Erosional remnants of from glacial erosion. Central Valley. the lahar are evidence that it flowed at least 51 The Tuolumne river system provides no di- Erosional remannts of the volcanic sequence, km farther west (Fig. 4). Other remnants east of rect evidence for timing the onset of uplift, particularly where underlying fluvial deposits Rancheria Mountain show that it was fluid but the shape of the lO-m.y.-old channel at are preserved, allow partial reconstruction of an enough to flow upstream along the main chan- Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 102, p. 102-115, 11 figs., January 1990. 102 Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/102/1/102/3380694/i0016-7606-102-1-102.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 118° Figure 1. Generalized topographic map of the Sierra Nevada, illustrating the tilt-block nature of the central part of the range and the location of the major streams draining its western slope (adapted from Christensen, 1966). Contours in ft x 1,000. Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/102/1/102/3380694/i0016-7606-102-1-102.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 104 N. K. HUBER 120°00' 119°30' 119°00' Figure 2. Index map of the Tuolumne drainage basin and vicinity. Main trunk of the Tuolumne River emphasized by heavier line weight. Dashed lines are drainage divides. nel at least 8 km above the junction with the in the vicinity of the present Clavey River. This The lava flow beneath the welded tuff on south-flowing tributary (Fig. 4). Because it is distinctive biotite-bearing tuff is similar in all Rancheria Mountain, described as latite by Dal- more widespread, the lahar is the key to tracing respects to Ransome's (1898) "biotite-augite la- rymple (1963), was subsequently designated a the course of the ancestral Tuolumne River. The tite," which is now included within the Eureka trachyandesite by Kistler (1973,1974). Trachy- latite flow and welded tuff, however, provide Valley Tuff (Noble and others, 1974). The dense andesite in the central Sierra Nevada tends to be stratigraphic and age controls. welding and abundance of biotite in the tuff at of local origin and of limited extent (Moore and The volcanic section on Rancheria Mountain Rancheria Mountain suggest that it is correlative Dodge, 1980). The rock at Rancheria Mountain was described briefly by Dairymple (1963), with the Tollhouse Flat Member, the lowest unit is very dark and dense and has tabular plagio- who also calculated a K-Ar age of 9.1 m.y. for in the Eureka Valley Tuff. The Eureka Valley clase phenocrysts typical of the Table Mountain the welded tuff (all ages cited here have been Tuff came from the Little Walker caldera east of Latite. A chemical analysis of a sample from recalculated to 1977 constants). An additional Sonora Pass and about 45 km north of Ranch- Rancheria Mountains (Kistler, 1974) compares age determination of 9.2 m.y. was obtained by eria Mountain (Fig. 2). Eleven K-Ar ages pre- favorably with analyses of the Table Mountain Dalrymple (1963) on similar tuff on Jawbone sented by Noble and others (1974) for the Latite (Dodge and Moore, 1981). After visiting Ridge (Figs. 2, 4) that apparently flowed south Tollhouse Flat Member include Dalrymple's Rancheria Mountain, I agree with Dalrymple's along another tributary of the Tuolumne River and give an average age of about 9.5 m.y. designation of the rock as latite and his córrela- Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/102/1/102/3380694/i0016-7606-102-1-102.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 EVOLUTION OF TUOLUMNE RIVER, CALIFORNIA 105 Figure 3. Ancient channel of the Tuolumne River exposed along the western bank of Piute Creek at Ranchería Mountain (Fig. 2). The river flowed westward away from the viewer into the V-shaped notch cut into gran- ite (center of the photograph).