U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PRELIMINARY GEOLOGIC MAP OF THE NORTH CENTRAL SAN BERNARDINO MOUNTAINS, CALIFORNIA SUMMARY PAMPHLET TO ACCOMPANY GEOLOGIC MAP By Jonathan C. Matti1, Howard J. Brown2, Fred K. Miller3, Chester T. Wrucke4, James P. Calzia4, and Clay M. Conway^ OPEN-FILE REPORT 93-544 This report is preliminary and has not been reviewed for conformity with U.S. Geological Survey editorial standards or with the North American Stratigraphic Code. Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. .S. Geological Survey ^Pluess-Stauffer (California), Inc %.S. Geological Survey Department of Geosciences P.O. Box 825 W904 Riverside Ave, Room 117 Gould-Simpson Building Lucerne Valley, California 92356 Spokane, WA 99201-1087 University of Arizona Tucson, Arizona 85721 4U.S. Geological Survey ^U.S. Geological Survey 345 Middlefield Road, MS 901 2255 North Gemini Drive Menlo Park, California 94025 Flagstaff, Arizona 86001-1698 1993 INTRODUCTION chaotically organized debris. Shreve (1968) grouped the catastrophic debris sheets and associated fanglomerate into This pamphlet briefly describes the lithology and his Cushenberry Formation. A lower unit consists of pinkish stratigraphy of rock units shown on the accompanying to very pale-brown, fine to coarse sandstone, pebbly sand­ geologic map of the north-central San Bernardino Mountains. stone, and minor pebble-cobble conglomerate. Northwest of the Blackhawk Mtn area this lithology grades laterally into DESCRIPTION OF MAP UNITS greenish-brown claystone and mudstone. We include in the Old Woman Sandstone some conglomeratic deposits that Sadler (1981, 1982c,d,f) assigned to his unit of relict QUATERNARY SURFICIAL MATERIALS fanglomerate (rf2m and rf2m' of Sadler, 1982m). Qw Active-wash deposits .(Holocene)-- Tb Basalt (Miocene?)-Flows of olivine- Unconsolidated to locally cemented sand and gravel in active bearing basalt containing ultramafic inclusions (basanite washes of streams and on active surfaces of alluvial fans. basalts of Antelope Creek described by Neville, 1983, p. 45- 46; also see Neville and Chambers, 1982) Ql Lacustrine deposits (Holocene and Pleistocene) Unconsolidated to moderately consolidated Ts Undifferentiated sedimentary sand, silt, and clay of Baldwin Lake. rocks (Miocene? to Pliocene?) Nonmarine deposits of sand­ stone and gravel that have little or no paleogeographic Qc Colluvial deposits (Holocene and relation to current landscape setting. West part of map Pleistocene) Deposits of imbedded to crudely bedded angular area: Unit probably is correlative with the Miocene Crowder gravel. Includes active talus deposits and dissected older talus Formation (of Meisling and Weldon, 1989) in the Cajon Pass deposits. area. Central part of map area: Unit consists of pink­ ish, white, and greenish sandstone and pebbly sandstone and Qs Undivided surficial deposits (Holo­ angular-gravel deposits mapped as talus breccia by Richmond cene and Pleistocene) Composite map unit consisting mainly (his unit Qb) and as relict fanglomerate by Sadler (1981, of inactive deposits of alluvial fans, alluvial plains, and talus 1982d,f,m his unit rf2m and rf2m'). These workers believe the fields, but locally includes active deposits that cannot be deposits to be entirely Pleistocene in age. An early differentiated at the map scale. Where possible, divided into Pleistocene age cannot be ruled out for younger parts of the younger surficial deposits and older surficial deposits: unit. However, based on their dissected geomorphology, lithology, thickness, and degree of faulting, we believe these Qys Younger surficial deposits (Holo­ deposits mainly are equivalent with the Santa Ana Sandstone cene and latest Pleistocene) Slightly consolidated to (of Vaughan, 1922, as used by Sadler, 1981 and Sadler and cemented, undissected to slightly dissected deposits of gravel Demirer, 1986) and thus are late Miocene and Pliocene in age. and sand that form inactive parts of alluvial fans and alluvial East part of map area: Unit includes arkosic sediment plains. locally containing clasts of marble, metaquartzite, and porphyritic volcanic rocks; included by Sadler (1982b,h) in Qos Older surficial deposits (Pleisto­ his units ?a [arkose] and acq [quartzite-clast-bearing cene) Moderately consolidated to cemented deposits of gravel conglomerate]. The unit probably is correlative with the and sand that form abandoned, well dissected alluvial fans and Santa Ana Sandstone as proposed by Sadler (1981, 1982m). alluvial plains. Locally includes gravel assigned by Shreve Locally includes sedimentary rocks that may be correlative (1968) to his Cushenberry Formation. with the Old Woman Sandstone Qols Older landslide deposits (Pleisto­ cene) Occurs on the north face of Blackhawk Mountain where MESOZOIC PLUTONIC ROCKS unit consists of intact and shattered blocks of Bird Spring Formation (middle and upper members) that have ridden over A variety of plutonic rocks crop out in the north- various in-place units, including Bird Spring Formation, Old central San Bernardino Mountains. The youngest and geo­ Woman Sandstone, and Cretaceous monzogranite. On graphically most widespread of these is a suite of granitoid Blackhawk Mountain, Sadler (1981, 1982d) included these rocks that mainly are biotite bearing and monzogranitic in deposits within his unit of marble cataclasite (Sadler, 1982m, composition (units Km, Kmm, Kgp, Kgm, Khqm, Kqd). These unit fc). rocks probably are Cretaceous in age based on potassium- argon and argon-argon age determinations from the San Bernardino Mountains and from similar rocks in the Mojave QUATERNARY AND TERTIARY Desert region (Armstrong and Suppe, 1973; Miller and SEDIMENTARY AND VOLCANIC ROCKS Morton, 1980; Cameron, 1981). The Cretaceous granitoids intruded an older suite of granitoid rocks and associated QTo Old Woman Sandstone (Pleistocene hypabyssal rocks that probably are Jurassic in age (units Idb, and Pliocene) Includes two informal units: an upper unit Jdg, and Jh). The Jurassic rocks in turn intruded a distinctive consists of pebble-cobble conglomerate and subordinate pink­ alkalic hornblende monzonite and associated rocks (units Thm ish sandstone and pebbly sandstone interlayered with and and Id) that are Triassic in age. overtopped by landslide breccia and catastrophic debris sheets composed mainly of carbonate rock but locally composed of mi Mixed igneous rocks (Cretaceous and granitoid debris. Debris sheets include (a) large blocks of older) Heterogeneous migmatitic mixed-rock unit recognized bedrock that retain original stratigraphic or petrologic by Smith (1982a,b). In vicinity of White Mountain, unit features even though the blocks may be shattered, and (b) consists of intermingled biotite monzogranite (Km), horn­ gabbro, and amphibolite. May be equivalent to Jurassic blende monzonite (Thm), and diorite (Td). East of White Diorite of Bertha Peak in the Fawnskin area (unit Jdb). Mountain, biotite monzogranite (Km) is intermingled mainly Intruded by units Km and Kqd. with volcanic rocks of the hypabyssal dike complex (Jh) but locally includes hornblende monzonite (Thm). In the vicinity Jh Hypabyssal dike rocks (Jurassic?) of Greenlead Mine the unit includes mylonitic plutonic rocks. Aphanitic to fine grained porphyritic rocks ranging in composition from andesite to quartz latite porphyry. Intrudes Km Monzogranite (Cretaceous) Medium to unit Tihm; intruded by unit Km. coarse grained, texturally massive to lineated, leucocratic, equigranular to porphyritic biotite monzogranite. Includes Ihm Hornblende monzonite (Triassic) more than one plutonic body, but individual plutons like the Medium to coarse grained foliated to massive hornblende porphyritic monzogranite of Rattlesnake Mountain (MacColl, monzonite to quartz monzonite. The unit has a minimum age 1964) are not differentiated. Locally contains muscovite and of 214.1±2.1 Ma determined by the 40Ar/39Ar method garnet. (Cameron, 1981, p. 334). Intruded by units Khqm and Km. Kmm Muscovite-bearing monzogranite Id Diorite (Triassic) Medium to coarse (Cretaceous)--Medium grained, texturally massive to lineated, grained foliated to massive diorite and gabbro. We adopt leucocratic biotite monzogranite that is muscovite- and Smith's (1982a,b) interpretation that the dioritic rocks are garnet-bearing. Probably is a phase of unit Km. comagmatic with the unit of hornblende monzonite (Ehm) Kgp Granite porphyry (Cretaceous)--Fine mpm Mixed plutonic and metasedimen­ grained leucocratic monzogranite containing phenocrysts of tary rock (Mesozoic and (or) Paleozoic and (or) biotite, quartz, microcline-perthite, and plagioclase. Proterozoic) Complexly intermingled Mesozoic granitoid Richmond (1960) and Sadler (1981) interpreted this rock as a rocks and pre-Mesozoic metasedimentary rocks. Plutonic border phase of the widespread biotite monzogranite pluton rocks contain abundant xenoliths and inclusions, are (unit Km), an interpretation we share; however, Dibblee texturally massive to gneissose, and have heterogeneous (1964, p. 3) indicates that the granite porphyry grades into compositions that include monzogranite, granodiorite, and the hypabyssal dike complex (Jh) and has affinities with these amphibolite. Prebatholithic rocks include screens, pendants, older rocks. and small bodies of quartzofeldspathic gneiss, schist, and marble that we interpret as deformed and highly assimilated Kgm Mylonitic granitoid rock (Creta­ equivalents of less deformed