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Structural Geology of the Montgomery Mountains and the Northern Half of the Nopah and Resting Spring Ranges, Nevada and California

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Structural Geology of the Montgomery Mountains and the Northern Half of the Nopah and Resting Spring Ranges, Nevada and California Structural geology of the Montgomery Mountains and the northern half of the Nopah and Resting Spring Ranges, Nevada and California B. C. BURCHFIEL Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 G. S. HAMILL IV Research and Development Company, Box 36506, Houston, Texas 77036 D. E. WILHELMS U.S. Geological Survey. 345 Middlefield Road. Menlo Park. California 94025 ABSTRACT Ranges, for the most part in California. The area lies between the Amargosa and Pahrump Valleys and southwest of the Spring More than 7,500 m of upper Precambrian and Paleozoic sedi- Mountains (Fig. 1). The generalized geologic map of the area mentary rocks in the area of the Montgomery Mountains and the (Fig. 2) is produced from a more detailed map published in the northern half of the Nopah and Resting Spring Ranges represent a Geological Society of America Map and Chart Series (Burchfiel typical Cordilleran miogeosynclinal sequence. During Mesozoic and others, 1982). The detailed map adjoins the western edge of a time, after a period of earlier Mesozoic folding and high-angle map of the Spring Mountains (at the same scale) by Burchfiel and faulting, these rocks were cut by thrust faults that divided the rock others (1974). sequence into four structural units in the Resting Spring Range and R. B. Rowe was the first geologist to make observations in the the Montgomery Mountains. From the top down, the units are: map area, and his rather limited study is reported in the regional (1) the Montgomery thrust plate, (2) the Baxter thrust plate, (3) the compilation of Spurr (1903). A later reconnaissance by Ball (1907) Resting Spring thrust plate, and (4) the Amargosa unit. Beneath the in southwestern Nevada and eastern California bordered on the Montgomery thrust fault in the Montgomery Mountains lies the map area, but his work and that of Spurr yielded only a highly Six Mile thrust plate, which has limited extent but may be a major generalized view of the geology. Nolan (1929) mapped about subunit of the Baxter plate. The Montgomery thrust plate moved 40 km2 in the northeast corner of the Montgomery Mountains as eastward along a single thrust, but the Resting Spring thrust plate part of his study of the northwest part of the Spring Mountains. moved eastward along an anastomosing series of thrust faults, More recently, Mason (1948) mapped the adjacent area to the which divided it into a series of lobes. Thrust faults in the Resting south, and Burchfiel mapped adjacent areas to the north (Burchfiel, Spring Range now dip east because Cenozoic tilting has reversed 1965) and northwest (Burchfiel, 1966). Denny and Drewes (1965) their original subhorizontal or west dips. In the Nopah Range, there mapped the Ash Meadows quadrangle, which lies west of the are three major structural units, which are, from the top down: (1) Montgomery Mountains. Their mapping covered the northwest the Chicago Pass thrust plate, (2) the Shaw thrust plate, and (3) the corner of the Resting Spring Range, but their work focused on Nopah Range unit. Structural units in the Nopah Range cannot be Cenozoic rocks, and pre-Cenozoic rocks of the range were not dif- unequivocally correlated with those in the Resting Spring Range ferentiated in detail. Generalized geology for the Nevada portion of and Montgomery Mountains, and two hypotheses must be pre- the map was published on the Geologic Map of Nevada (Stewart sented for correlation: hypothesis 1 correlates the Baxter thrust plate and Carlson, 1978) and includes mapping done by R. L. of the Resting Spring Range with the Shaw thrust plate of the Christiansen (unpub.). Nopah Range, and hypothesis 2 correlates the Baxter thrust plate Pre-Cenozoic rocks in the map area range in age from late with the Chicago Pass thrust plate of the Nopah Range. Precambrian to Middle Pennsylvanian (Fig. 3). About half of the Post-thrusting structures are related to progressive west or more than 7,500 m of sedimentary rocks consists of a basal terrig- northwest extension. Cenozoic folds around the north end of Stew- enous sequence of quartz-rich sedimentary rocks. The upper half art Valley are oblique and related to right slip on the northwest- of the sequence is dominated by limestone and dolomite and rare striking Stewart Valley fault. These may be the oldest post- units of clastic rocks. A nearly unbroken sequence of Precambrian thrusting structural features in the area. Right slip and high-angle crystalline basement rocks through Middle Pennsylvanian rocks is dip-slip faults are probably contemporaneous, forming ranges and present in the Nopah Range, if rocks exposed south from the map valleys by pull-aparts. Continued extension caused rotation of ear- area (Hazzard, 1938; Mason, 1948) are included. The only major lier high-angle dip-slip faults so that some of them are now unconformity within the Nopah Range sedimentary sequence is at subhorizontal. Some low-angle faults are probably gravity slides the base of the Devonian Nevada Formation, where it rests on the and form gradations into more chaotic landslides. Silurian Hidden Valley Dolomite east of Chicago Pass and on the Upper Ordovician Ely Springs Dolomite farther southeast. Only INTRODUCTION upper Precambrian through Upper Cambrian rocks are present in the Resting Spring Range. The mapped area covers all of the Montgomery Mountains, Hazzard (1938) made a thorough study of the stratigraphy of Nevada, and the northern half of the Nopah and Resting Spring the Nopah Range and of the part of the Resting Spring Range Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 94, p. 1359-1376, 8 figs., November 1983. 1359 Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/94/11/1359/3419372/i0016-7606-94-11-1359.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 1360 BURCHFIEL AND OTHERS Figure 1. Location and major topo- graphic features of the mapped area. Areas of mapping responsibility are shown by heavy lines, names and dates. Small triangular area (H & B) in the northern Resting Spring Range mapped by Hamill and modified by Burchfiel. south of the present map area. He accurately measured and de- scribed nine partial sections embracing the entire Precambrian and Paleozoic column within the map area. Seven of his sections were measured in the Nopah Range within the area of the present report, and two others were farther south, one in each range. Since its publication, Hazzard's section has been the standard for the region. As a discussion of the stratigraphy of the mapped area accompanies the detailed map in the publication, it is not repeated here. The present study was conducted in three parts (Fig. 1): Wil- helms (1963) mapped the southern part of the area for his disserta- tion; Hamill (1966) mapped the northern part of the area for his dissertation; Burchfiel mapped the area between these two studies during the summers of 1972 through 1974 and prepared this report. Three major topographically positive elements are found in the map area (Fig. 1): (1) the northern end of the Nopah Range in the southeast part of the area, (2) the northern end of the Resting Spring Range in the southwest part, and (3) the Montgomery Mountains, which form the hills and mountains in the central and northern part. The road along the east side of Stewart Valley and the south side of Ash Meadows is here considered the boundary between the Montgomery Mountains and the Resting Spring Range. Toward the northeast, the Montgomery Mountains merge with the northwest part of the Spring Mountains. STRUCTURE: GENERAL FEATURES The southern half of the area consists of typical basin and range topography that reflects the tilted fault blocks of the Nopah parison of the thrust faults and folds in the area with those of and Resting Spring Ranges. The northern half consists of more better-determined age in other areas suggests that the age of most is irregular topography, the Montgomery Mountains, much of which Mesozoic. East and southeast of the map area, a complex history of is difficult to explain in terms of tilted fault blocks. The major Mesozoic deformation can be recognized that ranges from probably structural features within the ranges are several east-directed thrust Middle Triassic to Late Cretaceous (Burchfiel and Davis, 1971, faults, the exact number of which is not certain. Numerous high- 1977; Burchfiel and others, 1974). However, these dated events have angle faults are present, and evidence suggests that some are older not been correlated individually with the several phases of thrusting than the thrust faults. At least two high-angle faults may have and folding of the area discussed herein. considerable strike-slip displacement. Large folds are present The complex Cenozoic folds and high-angle faults that have locally, and many folds are related to thrust faults. Several large greatly disrupted the Mesozoic structures require considerable folds in the Montgomery Mountains, however, may be older than interpretation before continuity of Mesozoic structures can be rec- the thrusting. ognized, and some ambiguity remains in correlation of the Meso- After a long period of general subsidence from late Precam- zoic structures. As a first approximation, the structures within the brian to Pennsylvanian and probably to middle Permian time, the map area are broadly classified as Mesozoic and Cenozoic. Individ- first deformational events affected the area. Dating of these events ual structures are described in probable chronological order, and is very poor in the map area and can be bracketed only as between their possible correlations both within the mapped area and region- the middle Pennsylvanian and the middle(?) Tertiary. General com- ally are discussed later. Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/94/11/1359/3419372/i0016-7606-94-11-1359.pdf by guest on 01 October 2021 Figure 2.
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