Formation of the SIERRA NEVADA BATHOLITH

Field Guide 34

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

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 geochemical 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].

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

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

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 arc plutons. Day 6 is not shown but retraces earlier days, starting from Mammoth Lakes area and ending in the town of Oakhurst.

Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/books/book/chapter-pdf/3739424/9780813756349_frontmatter.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021 Introduction xi

DAY 1: The 151 Ma Guadalupe Igneous Complex and 1:24,000 scale mapping, (2) detailed structural studies and strain nearby Hornitos pluton, a tilted plutonic section that exposes from analyses, (3) whole rock and single mineral element and isotope bottom to top a vertically sheeted feeder zone, a large sequence geochemistry, (4) high-precision CA-ID-TIMS (chemical abra- of high Mg, layered gabbros; a central mingled granite to dioritic sion–isotope dilution–thermal ionization mass spectrometry) section; an upper section of granophyres; and a capping volca- U/Pb zircon and 40Ar-39Ar geochronology, and (5) thermobarom- nic/sedimentary section. Here we will explore how granites may etry of plutons and host rocks. Models for the construction of form in arcs and internal processes in magma chambers. this intrusive complex and interpretation of these data sets remain DAY 2: The 124–105 Ma, > 3,000 km2, tonalitic- controversial. Our focus is on the presentation of new data sets granodioritic Fine Gold Intrusive Suite. This incrementally con- and discussion of the implications of these for the proposed structed complex intrudes across a fundamental basement suture growth models. (Foothills suture) between oceanic and displaced passive margin DAY 5: An examination of a vertically tilted section basement in the Sierras and thus allows us to examine issues of through the Triassic to Cretaceous volcanic sequence and under- incremental chamber construction, magma–wall-rock interac- lying Paleozoic basement that was originally constructed above tions, and the isotopic and geochemical systematics across a the Mesozoic plutons and is now exposed in the Saddlebag Lake major basement suture. The Fine Gold Intrusive Suite gives us pendant, and a complex sheeted zone along the eastern margin of a sense of how the tempo and mode of magmatism show differ- the Tuolumne Intrusive Complex in which numerous magmatic ences and similarities to later episodes of Cretaceous magmatism structures are displayed. in the Sierran arc. DAY 6: Besides synthesizing data presented during Days DAY 3: The ca. 102–100 Ma Yosemite Valley Intrusive 1–5, we will present a number of new arc-scale data sets being Suite (El Capitan/Mount Hoffman granodiorite, Taft Granite, developed and evaluated, such as (1) new mapping in a number and isolated maﬁ c bodies), and ca. 98–95 Ma Yosemite Creek– of pendants and plutons, (2) extensive structural data collected in Sentinel plutons. New mapping, structural analysis, and a grow- metamorphic host rocks and plutons, (3) strain analyses collected ing database of geochemistry (elemental and isotopic whole across the central Sierras, (4) CA-ID-TIMS and LA-ICPMS rock, minerals) and U-Pb geochronology suggest that these (laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry) plutons grew via numerous increments that produced superﬁ - zircon ages of plutons and volcanic rocks plus LA-ICPMS detri- cially very different plutons with differing scales of heterogene- tal zircon ages from metasedimentary and volcaniclastic units, ity. The new data allow us to speculate on why and how such (5) regional syntheses of geochemical and isotopic (Sr, Nd, Pb, contrasts arose. O, Hf) analyses, and (6) an attempt to combine all of the above DAY 4: The 95–85 Ma Tuolumne Intrusive Complex, an data sets with regional tectonics. Syntheses of the temporal and ~1100 km2, internally zoned complex that has been extensively spatial evolution of these data sets will focus on magmatic/tec- studied over the past 12 years by a number of research groups. tonic tempos at various scales and overall petrologic evolution of New data sets abound, including (1) extensive 1:10,000 and Cordilleran-style arcs.

Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/books/book/chapter-pdf/3739424/9780813756349_frontmatter.pdf by guest on 02 October 2021