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California Geologic History

California Geologic History. Part I: Pre-San Andreas Fault System. Acknowledgement. Slightly modified from a presentation by Mark W. University of Colorado at Boulder http://snobear.colorado.edu/Markw/Mountains/03/week10.html With some slides from Chris Hill – Grossmont College

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California Geologic History

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  1. California Geologic History Part I: Pre-San Andreas Fault System

  2. Acknowledgement • Slightly modified from a presentation by • Mark W. University of Colorado at Boulder http://snobear.colorado.edu/Markw/Mountains/03/week10.html With some slides from • Chris Hill – Grossmont College http://www.grossmont.edu/chrishill/california_geology_powerpoint_pr.htm

  3. Think-Pair-Share • What do you know about our state’s geology, present and past?

  4. http://www.consrv.ca.gov/cgs/geotour/PublishingImages/GeolProvinces2.jpghttp://www.consrv.ca.gov/cgs/geotour/PublishingImages/GeolProvinces2.jpg

  5. Geologic map of California • What “story” this map tell? • Activity: Tour of the map • How are different rock types grouped • Where are the oldest rocks found? • Where are the youngest rocks? • Can you find the Franciscan Complex?

  6. Overview: It’s Complicated • California’s geologic history is very complex • Most of the state did not exist as a coherent piece of Earth’s crust until relatively recently in geologic terms. • Rock formations that are now adjacent often have very different histories. • Terrane: A rock formation or assemblage of rock formations that share a common geologic history. A geologic terrane is distinguished from neighboring terranes by its different history (USGS) • Multiple episode of orogeny or mountain-building • The most recent period of mountain building is still going on, and practically all of the current landforms and geographic features are very young in geologic terms—only a few million years old.

  7. Proterozoic and Paleozoic Eras (2,500-245 mya) • Rocks older than 600 million years are rare in California. • The oldest rocks, which are more than 1,000 million years old, are located in the eastern deserts and the eastern Transverse Ranges (San Bernardino and San Gabriel Mountains). • The distribution of rocks of these ages suggests that the west coast of the North American Continent was well to the east of all but the southern end of what is now California.

  8. Proterozoic and Paleozoic Era • All of these very old formations have been extensively metamorphosed - difficult to determine the conditions that existed when they were originally formed. • Some of the oldest (around 1,800 million years old) are located in the mountains around Death Valley and are much like the rocks exposed in the inner gorge of the Grand Canyon. • Metamorphic rocks around 1,000 million years old in the San Gabriel Mountains and the Orocopia Mountains east of the Salton Sea.

  9. Proterozoic and Paleozoic Era • Between 1,000 million years ago and 400 million years ago was a quiet period in western North America. • A passive (Atlantic type) margin • The coastline remained east of California, probably in Utah and Idaho. Very thick sections of marine sedimentary rocks from this period are exposed in the mountains east of the Sierra Nevada. • For the most part, these rocks are carbonates (limestone and dolomite), indicating shallow, warm ocean conditions with little incoming terrestrial sediment—possibly similar to the Gulf of Mexico today.

  10. History of Californian continental margin Major events • Rifting in the latest Pre-Cambrian; • Two orogenies, the Antler (Devonian) and the Sonoma (Permian – Triassic): collisions of offshore volcanic arcs with North America; • Initiation of continental margin subduction with trench in today’s western Sierra foothills (Triassic-Jurassic); • Interruption of subduction by Late Jurassic Nevadan orogeny (accretion of another island arc terrane), initiation of Andean trench-gap-arc system at Franciscan-Great Valley-Sierra location; • Cenozoic subduction of Pacific-Farallon ridge leading to growing no-slab zone, Laramide orogeny in Rocky Mountains, then initiation of Basin-and-Range extension and San Andreas transform. 11

  11. Types continental margin • California has been all four, at various times in the past billion years. • Atlantic-type: passive margin; not a plate boundary • Andean-type: subduction close to shore, arc volcanoes on continental basement • Japanese-type: subduction offshore, marginal sea between the arc and the mainland • Californian-type: transform fault, no subduction, no spreading 12

  12. Antler and Sonoma Events • Around 400 million years ago the quiescent period in western North America came to an end. • Collision and accretion of arc terranes .

  13. Mesozoic Era (245-65 million years ago) • Nevadan Orogeny – 210 mya. Uplift of the ancestrial Nevadan Mountains caused by the formation of the main body of intrusive granitic rocks that now make up most of the Sierra Nevada (subduction zone probably similar to the current situation along the West Coast of South America).

  14. Mesozoic Era: 245-65 mya • By 150 million years ago the Nevadan Mountains composed the western coast of North America and the sea never again extended farther east than the eastern edge of what is now the Central Valley. • At roughly the same time the granitic rocks were forming that are now found in the Peninsular Range of Southern California and in the Salinian block that runs along the western edge of the San Andreas Fault in the central and southern Coast Ranges.

  15. Cretaceous • Forces that created the intrusive granitic rocks of the Sierra Nevada and Southern California continued episodically until about 90-100 million years ago. During the same period sedimentary deposits were accumulating on the continental shelf, slope, and in an offshore subduction zone.

  16. Cretaceous • By that time the subduction zone had shifted west to about the current location of the Coast Ranges • Deposits in the subduction zone were mixed with rocks from the upper mantle beneath the crust producing the Franciscan Complex (extends from northern Santa Barbara to the northern California coast). • The oceanic crustal material in the Franciscan formation was thrust up against the Sierran block by about 75 million years ago, extending the boundary of the North American plate further west.

  17. SUMMARY • Accreted terranes • Multiple orogenic events • Transition from subduction to transform fault • San Andreas Fault System • Present uplift

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