Recent geological work on Central Sierra

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mokelumnekid
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Recent geological work on Central Sierra

Post by mokelumnekid »

In the last ten years or so, the group at UCSB/CSUF has been doing an intensive geological remapping and interpretation of the area between Carson and south of Sonora Pass. They are focusing on the Cenozoic volcanic history, not the granitic bedrock series. This has led to (at least) five publications. I can't post the pdf's here for copyright reasons, but they are widely available at university libraries (or contact me personally). I was able to enjoy doing some field work with them, and recalling my geological apprenticeship working on those same units with the USGS while an undergrad at the Mackay School of Mines (late '70's). While much remains to be sorted out about this part of the Sierra, this is a fresh and credible new stab at things. They all seem to be from the same volume of the journal which will greatly simply tracking them down:

Jeanette C. Hagan, Cathy J. Busby, Keith Putirka and Paul R. Renne, 2009, "Cenozoic palaeocanyon evolution, Ancestral Cascades arc volcanism, and structure of the Hope Valley–Carson Pass region, Sierra Nevada, California," International Geology Review Vol. 51, Nos. 9–11, September–November 2009, 777–823.

Carolyn Gornya, Cathy Busby, Christopher J. Pluharb, Jeanette Hagan and
Keith Putirka, 2009, "An in-depth look at distal Sierra Nevada palaeochannel fill: drill cores
through the Table Mountain Latite near Knights Ferry
," International Geology Review Vol. 51, Nos. 9–11, September–November 2009, 824–842.

Cathy J. Busby and Keith Putirka, 2009 "Miocene evolution of the western edge of the Nevadaplano in the central and northern Sierra Nevada: palaeocanyons, magmatism, and structure," International Geology Review Vol. 51, Nos. 7–8, July–August 2009, 670–701.

Alice Koerner, Cathy Busby, Keith Putirka and Christopher J. Pluhar, "New evidence for alternating effusive and explosive eruptions from the type section of the Stanislaus Group in the ‘Cataract’ palaeocanyon, central Sierra Nevada," International Geology Review Vol. 51, Nos. 9–11, September–November 2009, 962–985.

Christopher J. Pluhar, Alan L. Deino, Nathan M. King, Cathy Busby,
Brian P. Hausback, Tracy Wright and Collin Fischer, 2009, "Lithostratigraphy, magnetostratigraphy, and radiometric dating of the Stanislaus Group, CA, and age of the Little Walker Caldera," International Geology Review Vol. 51, Nos. 9–11, September–November 2009, 873–899
Last edited by mokelumnekid on Sat Oct 22, 2011 9:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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rlown
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Re: Recent geological work on Central Sierra

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From other scientists, I hear that http://scholar.google.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; indexes all major papers. If the paper can't be read, what good is it?

Nice post though..

I liked this one on a related article: http://authors.library.caltech.edu/20774/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Recent geological work on Central Sierra

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Yeah that microplate work is interesting- that's more giantbrookie's field than mine. I can pass off pdf's to anyone that is interested just can't post links to them directly as I don't have a place for that kind of stuff. They are a bit technical but all do have geological maps of some flavor. That's the best we can do...
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Re: Recent geological work on Central Sierra

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mokelumnekid wrote:Yeah that microplate work is interesting- that's more giantbrookie's field than mine. I can pass off pdf's to anyone that is interested just can't post links to them directly as I don't have a place for that kind of stuff. They are a bit technical but all do have geological maps of some flavor. That's the best we can do...
Not to be an idiot, but post what you do.. Your PDF, if you will. I know you're more than a kayak. Beyond the maps.. What do you see and what do you know about where we hike. pick a place and tell us about it.

Not just you, MK.. GB should do the same..

Russ
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Re: Recent geological work on Central Sierra

Post by terryw100@gmail.com »

Jason saleeby has also published many papers on the sierra nevada. he will give a talk at white mt research center in bishop on oct 27, 7 pm (i think). Cathy busby will be there also, and she gives a talk this winter at wmrs, keep an eye on their website for more info. I ll be in benton geologiszing with them in the days before Jasons talk. check it out. teedubgeo from Benton
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Re: Recent geological work on Central Sierra

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terryw100@gmail.com wrote:Jason saleeby has also published many papers on the sierra nevada. he will give a talk at white mt research center in bishop on oct 27, 7 pm (i think). Cathy busby will be there also, and she gives a talk this winter at wmrs, keep an eye on their website for more info. I ll be in benton geologiszing with them in the days before Jasons talk. check it out. teedubgeo from Benton
so, think of this forum as being interested but not attending the meetings.. point us to the info. We love to read..
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Re: Recent geological work on Central Sierra

Post by mokelumnekid »

If you get a chance to talk with Cathy (who was the lead on a lot of the work I mentioned at the start of this thread) or Jason who is a recognized authority on Sierra tectonics both old and new, it will be time well spent. They are terrific people as well as exceptional scientists.
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Re: Recent geological work on Central Sierra

Post by Herm »

MK;
Just glanced through the names listed, but did not recognize any, so assuming that CUSF is Fresno, like GiantBrookie. I graduated with b.s. in geological science from CSUF (Fullerton) 1995, and one of my professors (Diane Clemons-Knott) did a bit of work in the southern Sierra, around Lemon Cove. She seemed to be focused at that time on orbicular gabbros.
Certainly, the info you posted should be good reading.
Anyway, thanks for posting.
Herm
I am not in a hurry, so don't be hasty.
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mokelumnekid
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Re: Recent geological work on Central Sierra

Post by mokelumnekid »

Herm- that's right, CSUF is Fresno (also where giantbrookie is located)- I had overlooked the fact there are two with that acronym. I know Diane by the way although our paths don't cross that often. She has continued to work on southwestern Sierra rocks and not long ago published a paper on a gabbro complex there. I can send you pdf's of any of the above papers if you want. They pretty much are restricted to Carson-Ebbetts-Sonora Pass areas.
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Re: Recent geological work on Central Sierra

Post by giantbrookie »

rlown wrote:
mokelumnekid wrote:Yeah that microplate work is interesting- that's more giantbrookie's field than mine. I can pass off pdf's to anyone that is interested just can't post links to them directly as I don't have a place for that kind of stuff. They are a bit technical but all do have geological maps of some flavor. That's the best we can do...
Not to be an idiot, but post what you do.. Your PDF, if you will. I know you're more than a kayak. Beyond the maps.. What do you see and what do you know about where we hike. pick a place and tell us about it.

Not just you, MK.. GB should do the same..

Russ
I was unaware that MK had gotten this thread going. On my university web page (http://www.csufresno.edu/geology/Facult ... yashi.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) there is a list of some of my papers with links to pdfs. Most of those that are not linked can be obtained from me if you email me. My Sierra papers to date include a 2001 paper (Wakabayashi and Sawyer 2001, linked on my web page) that evaluates the topographic evolution of the Sierra Nevada and its connection to tectonics, and 2009 paper (Smart and Wakabayashi, 2009) that relates to some of the bedrock geology of some rocks in the northern Sierra that predate the granitic rocks of the Sierra. This reminds me that I haven't updated this page since late 2010 and I need to get busy and add a lot of updates.

There will be a large number of new Sierran papers coming out in an issue of Geosphere that has been delayed in part because there are some tardy authors--I am one of them. I will have an update on the topographic story, there will be more from the Cathy Busby-Keith Putirka group, and a former student of mine will (I hope) get a paper in there that updates the evolution of the San Joaquin River canyon (with some new insight into Kings Canyon as well), among many other papers.

I keep meaning to plunge back into my Sierran research and get a few papers knocked out, but I keep getting side tracked by my main research interests that lie in the California Coast Ranges and similar sorts of rocks around the world.

We did take the kids on their first rockhounding trip to the Sierra today, though. My son, Lee (9), suggested this after I damaged my nicest skarn (really pretty garnets) sample from an old high country tungsten mine that is a longtime favorite in the Fresno State geology department (sample was damaged while taking it to a Cub Scout activity). I had in fact visited this mine at least a decade before I came to Fresno State in 2005 for an alternative route to a favorite high country spot of mine and Judy's passes by it. In any case we enjoyed some gorgeous fall weather and Lee pegged some really nice samples. That guy has a good eye--he was competing with me to see if he could top my samples.
Since my fishing (etc.) website is still down, you can be distracted by geology stuff at: http://www.fresnostate.edu/csm/ees/facu ... ayshi.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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