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Science 15 December 1967:
Vol. 158. no. 3807, pp. 1407 - 1417
DOI: 10.1126/science.158.3807.1407
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Articles

Sierra Nevada Batholith

The batholith was generated within a synclinorium

Paul C. Bateman 1 and Jerry P. Eaton 1

1 U.S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, California

The Sierra Nevada batholith is localized in the axial region of a complex faulted synclinorium that coincides with a downfold in the Mohorovicic discontinuity and in P-wave velocity boundaries within the crust. Observed P-wave velocities are compatible with downward increase in the proportion of diorite, quartz diorite, and calcic granodiorite relative to quartz monzonite and granite in the upper crust, with amphibolite or gabbro-basalt in the lower crust, and with periodotite in the upper mantle. The synclinorium was formed in Paleozoic and Mesozoic strata during early and middle Mesozoic time in a geosyncline marginal to the continent. Granitic magmas are believed to have formed in the lower half of the crust at depths of 25 to 45 kilometers or more, primarily as a result of high radiogenic heat production in the thickened prism of crustal rocks. Magma was generated at different times in different places as the locus of down-folding shifted. It rose into the upper crust because it was less dense than rock of the same composition or residual refractory rocks. Refractory rocks and crystals that were not melted and early crystallized mafic minerals that settled from the rising magma thickened the lower crust. Wall and roof rocks settled around, and perhaps through, the rising magma and provided space for its continued rise. Erosion followed each magmatic episode, and 10 to 12 kilometers of rock may have been eroded away since the Jurassic and 7 to 10 kilometers since the early Late Cretaceous.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
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Timing of volcanism in the Sierra Nevada of California: Evidence for Pliocene delamination of the batholithic root?.
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Pliocene Potassic Magmas from the Kings River Region, Sierra Nevada, California: Evidence for Melting of a Subduction-Modified Mantle.
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Inversion of travel-time data for earthquake locations and three-dimensional velocity structure in the Eureka Valley area, eastern California.
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Geomorphically Driven Late Cenozoic Rock Uplift in the Sierra Nevada, California.
E. E. Small and R. S. Anderson (1995)
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Deep intraplate earthquakes in the western United States and their relationship to lithospheric temperatures.
I. G. WONG and D. S. CHAPMAN (1990)
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 80, 589-599
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Deep intraplate seismicity in the western Sierra Nevada, central California.
I. G. WONG and W. U. SAVAGE (1983)
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 73, 797-812
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An earthquake-explosion reversed refraction line in the Peninsular Ranges of southern California and Baja California Norte.
F. ALEJANDRO NAVA and J. N. BRUNE (1982)
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 72, 1195-1206
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Multi-mode analysis of Rayleigh-type Lg. Part 2. Application to southern California and the northwestern Sierra Nevada.
M. CARA, J. B. MINSTER, and R. LE BRAS (1981)
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 71, 985-1002
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Crustal structure in the northwestern foothills of the Sierra Nevada from seismic refraction experiments.
M. A. SPIETH, D. P. HILL, and R. J. GELLER (1981)
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 71, 1075-1087
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Seismic Models of the Root of the Sierra Nevada.
L. C. Pakiser, L. C. Pakiser, and J. N. Brune (1980)
Science 210, 1088-1094
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The nature, ascent and emplacement of granitic magmas.
W.S. Pitcher (1979)
Journal of the Geological Society 136, 627-662
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The Loch Doon granite: an example of granite petrogenesis in the British Caledonides.
G. C. Brown, J. Cassidy, A. G. Tindle, and D. J. Hughes (1979)
Journal of the Geological Society 136, 745-753
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Trans-California seismic profile, death Valley to Monterey Bay.
D. S. CARDER (1973)
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 63, 571-586
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Trans-California seismic profile-Pahute Mesa to San Francisco Bay.
D. S. CARDER, A. QAMAR, and T. V. MCEVILLY (1970)
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