SIERRA NEVADA GRANITIC INTRUSIVE SUITES AND COEVAL VOLCANIC ARCS

A bedrock geology compilation for the Sierra Nevada Earth Science Digital Atla, reveals a suite of Mesozoic granitic intrusive suites and coeval (meta)volcanic arcs.

The principal granitic intrusive suites, from older to younger, are: (1) the Middle Paleozoic Sierra Buttes suite; (2) the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic Scheelite and Walker Lake suites; (3) the Early to Late Jurassic Don Pedro, Long Valley, Mill Creek and Owens Mountain, Palisade Crest, San Emigdio, Soldier Pass, Stanislaus River, Tuttle, and Window Cliffs suites; (4) the Middle Jurassic Yuba River suite; (5) the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous Independence Dike Swarm and associated gabbro plutons; (6) the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous Merrimac Lake suite; (7) the Early Cretaceous Fine Gold, Stokes Mountain, and Tehachapi-San Emigdio suites; (8) the Mid-Cretaceous Bear Valley, Buena Vista Crest, Jack Main Canyon, Kaweah-Sequoia, Lake Tahoe, Merced Peak and Washburn, Owens Peak, Pastoria, Shaver Lake, and Yosemite suites; And (9) the Late Cretaceous John Muir, Papoose Flat, Sonora Pass, Tuolumne, and Whitney suites.

Several granitic intrusive suites and coeval metavolcanic units are: (1) the Late Triassic to Jurassic Walker Lake suite linked to the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic volcanic rocks of the Walker Lake Terrane, forming the Walker Igneous arc; (2) the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic Scheelite Intrusive suite linked to the Late Triassic metavolcanic rocks of the High Sierra Terrane, forming the High Sierra arc; (3) the Middle and Late Jurassic Palisade Crest Intrusive suite linked to the Late Triassic to Late Jurassic metavolcanic rocks of the Sierra Crest Terrane, forming the Goddard arc.

The major younger volcanic arc assemblages (and coeval granitic intrusive suites) are the: (1) middle to late Paleozoic Sierra Buttes and Robinson arcs, and the Early and Middle Jurassic Tuttle arc that overly the older units of the Northern Sierra Terrane; (2) the Early to Middle Jurassic Don Pedro arc (volcanic rocks and granitic plutons) that overlies the western margin of the Calaveras Complex of the Merced River Terrane; and (3) the mid-Cretaceous Monarch arc that overlies the Jurassic Goddard arc in the Sierra Crest Terrane.