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Formation of the SIERRA NEVADA BATHOLITH Field Guide 34 Formation of the SIERRA NEVADA BATHOLITH Magmatic and Tectonic Processes and Their Tempos Edited by Vali Memeti, Scott R. Paterson, and Keith D. Putirka Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/books/book/chapter-pdf/3739424/9780813756349_frontmatter.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 Formation of the Sierra Nevada Batholith Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/books/book/chapter-pdf/3739424/9780813756349_frontmatter.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 The 1864 fi eld party of the California Geological Survey (Charles Hoffmann absent). From left to right: James T. Gardner, Richard D. Cotter, William H. Brewer, and Clarence King. Gardner is holding a sextant used for mapping and astronomical location; Cotter is armed with musket, dagger, and pistol; both Brewer and King have mercury barometers—used to measure altitudes— slung on their shoulders; and King holds a geologist’s hammer. (Cour- tesy U.S. Geological Survey Library.) Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/books/book/chapter-pdf/3739424/9780813756349_frontmatter.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 Formation of the Sierra Nevada Batholith: Magmatic and Tectonic Processes and Their Tempos Edited by Vali Memeti Department of Earth Sciences University of Southern California Los Angeles, California 90089, USA and Department of Earth Sciences Durham University Durham DH1 3LE, UK Scott R. Paterson Department of Earth Sciences University of Southern California Los Angeles, California 90089, USA Keith D. Putirka Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences California State University Fresno, California 93740, USA Field Guide 34 3300 Penrose Place, P.O. Box 9140 Boulder, Colorado 80301-9140, USA 2014 Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/books/book/chapter-pdf/3739424/9780813756349_frontmatter.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 Copyright © 2014, The Geological Society of America (GSA), Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright is not claimed on content prepared wholly by U.S. government employees within the scope of their employment. Individual scientists are hereby granted permission, without fees or further requests to GSA, to use a single figure, a single table, and/or a brief paragraph of text in other subsequent works and to make unlimited photocopies of items in this volume for noncommercial use in classrooms to further education and science. Permission is also granted to authors to post the abstracts only of their articles on their own or their organization’s Web site providing that the posting cites the GSA publication in which the material appears and the citation includes the address line: “Geological Society of America, P.O. Box 9140, Boulder, CO 80301-9140 USA (http://www.geosociety.org),” and also providing that the abstract as posted is identical to that which appears in the GSA publication. In addition, an author has the right to use his or her article or a portion of the article in a thesis or dissertation without requesting permission from GSA, provided that the bibliographic citation and the GSA copyright credit line are given on the appropriate pages. For any other form of capture, reproduction, and/or distribution of any item in this volume by any means, contact Permissions, GSA, 3300 Penrose Place, P.O. Box 9140, Boulder, Colorado 80301-9140, USA; fax +1-303-357-1073; [email protected]. GSA provides this and other forums for the presentation of diverse opinions and positions by scientists worldwide, regardless of their race, citizenship, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or political viewpoint. Opinions presented in this publication do not reflect official positions of the Society. Published by The Geological Society of America, Inc. 3300 Penrose Place, P.O. Box 9140, Boulder, Colorado 80301-9140, USA www.geosociety.org Printed in U.S.A. GSA Books Science Editors: Kent Condie and F. Edwin Harvey Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Formation of the Sierra Nevada batholith : magmatic and tectonic processes and their tempos / edited by Vali Memeti, Scott R. Paterson, Keith D. Putirka. pages cm — (Field guide / Geological Society of America ; 34) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-8137-0034-2 (pbk.) 1. Batholiths—Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.) 2. Sierra Nevada (Calif. and Nev.) I. Memeti, Vali, 1977– II. Paterson, Scott R., 1954– III. Putirka, Keith D. (Keith Daniel) IV. Series: Field guide (Geological Society of America) ; 34. QE461.F664 2014 551.8'8097944—dc23 2013044871 Cover: Sawtooth Ridge and upper Piute Creek basin with Matterhorn Peak in the background, by Vali Memeti. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/books/book/chapter-pdf/3739424/9780813756349_frontmatter.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 Contents Acknowledgments . .vii Introduction . xi Scott R. Paterson, Jade Star Lackey, Vali Memeti, Robert B. Miller, Jonathan S. Miller, Roland Mundil, and Keith D. Putirka 1. Day 1: Guadalupe Igneous Complex . .1 Keith D. Putirka, Joe Canchola, Megan McNaughton, Oscar Smith, Gerardo Torrez, Scott R. Paterson, and Mihai Ducea 2. Day 2: The Fine Gold Intrusive Suite—Records of the nascent Cretaceous arc . .17 Jade Star Lackey, Callie L. Sendek, and Jane L. Eisenberg 3. Day 3: Sentinel Granodiorite, Yosemite Creek Granodiorite, and Yosemite Valley Intrusive Suite: Western host units of the Tuolumne Intrusive Complex . .33 Jonathan S. Miller, Robert B. Miller, and Greg Stock 4. Day 4: Magmatic evolution of the Tuolumne Intrusive Complex . 43 Vali Memeti, Scott R. Paterson, and Roland Mundil 5. Day 5: Mesozoic volcanic rocks of the central Sierra Nevada Arc . .75 Scott R. Paterson and Vali Memeti 6. Day 6: Overview of arc processes and tempos . .87 Scott R. Paterson, Vali Memeti, Lawford Anderson, Wenrong Cao, Jade Star Lackey, Keith D. Putirka, Robert B. Miller, Jonathan S. Miller, and Roland Mundil v Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/books/book/chapter-pdf/3739424/9780813756349_frontmatter.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 Acknowledgments We gratefully acknowledge fi nancial support from … and Yosemite National Park, Park Geologist Greg Stock, and all Park Rangers for logistical support during the Field Forum. Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/books/book/chapter-pdf/3739424/9780813756349_frontmatter.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 Introduction Scott R. Paterson* Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089-0740, USA Jade Star Lackey* Department of Geology, Pomona College, Claremont, California 91711, USA Vali Memeti* Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089-0740, USA, and Department of Earth Sciences, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, UK Robert B. Miller* Jonathan S. Miller* Department of Geology, San José State University, San José, California 95192-0102, USA Roland Mundil* Berkeley Geochronology Center, Berkeley, California 94709, USA Keith D. Putirka* Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, California State University, Fresno, California 93740, USA The evolution of continental margin orogens and magmatic arcs involve non–steady-state processes of subduction, orogeny, magmatism, exhumation, and erosion/redeposition. Recent studies have begun to examine the tempo, driven by feedbacks between these processes, of cyclic volumetric addition rates to arcs of plutonic and volcanic materials, both at the scale of arcs and single plutonic or volcanic systems. A full evaluation of these arc tempos requires the development and syntheses of large databases with high- precision temporal control. One arc, where a number of research groups have been actively developing and synthesizing high-precision databases, is the Sierra Nevada in California. This fi eld guide, written for the Geological Society of America fi eld forum that ran from 1–8 September 2012, brings together these data sets aimed at examining components of the Mesozoic arc. Our goal in hosting the forum and in publish- ing this fi eld guide is to foster cross-disciplinary discussions, leading to a better understanding of (1) the petrologic components of batholith formation; (2) the tectonic and petrologic controls on the tempo of arc development; and (3) the signifi cance of a number of important new fi eld, geochronologic, and geochemi- cal databases being developed in Cordilleran arcs. The six days of fi eld excursions focus on a west to east transect through the central Sierra Nevada to examine both volcanic and plutonic components of the Mesozoic arc, associated regional tectonics, and the characteristics of the underlying basement units. Specifi c targets will include the following (see Fig. I-1): *E-mails: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]. ix Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/books/book/chapter-pdf/3739424/9780813756349_frontmatter.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 x Introduction 119° 00’ 00” W 00” 119° 00’ 38° 00’ 00” N Day 5 Western Day 4 Metamorphic Day 3 Mammoth Lakes Belt Day 1 N Oakhurst Day 2 kilometers 0 30 36° 00’ 00” N 120° 00’ 00” W 00” 120° 00’ Figure I-1. Locations of fi eld trips for Days 1 through 5 across the central Sierra Nevada arc. Transects: Day 1—Guadalupe Igneous Complex (yellow); Day 2—Fine Gold Intrusive Suite (light blue); Day 3—Yosemite Valley Intrusive Suite, and Yosemite Creek and Sentinel granodiorites (green); Day 4—Tuolumne Intrusive Complex (orange); Day 5—Mesozoic volcanic rocks (blue gray); pink—other Sierran
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