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Science 15 September 2000:
Vol. 289. no. 5486, pp. 1912 - 1916
DOI: 10.1126/science.289.5486.1912
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Reports

Osmium Isotopic Evidence for Mesozoic Removal of Lithospheric Mantle Beneath the Sierra Nevada, California

Cin-Ty Lee,1* Qingzhu Yin,1 Roberta L. Rudnick,1dagger John T. Chesley,2 Stein B. Jacobsen1

Thermobarometric and Os isotopic data for peridotite xenoliths from late Miocene and younger lavas in the Sierra Nevada reveal that the lithospheric mantle is vertically stratified: the shallowest portions (<45 to 60 kilometers) are cold (670° to 740°C) and show evidence for heating and yield Proterozoic Os model ages, whereas the deeper portions (45 to 100 kilometers) yield Phanerozoic Os model ages and show evidence for extensive cooling from temperatures >1100°C to 750°C. Because a variety of isotopic evidence suggests that the Sierran batholith formed on preexisting Proterozoic lithosphere, most of the original lithospheric mantle appears to have been removed before the late Miocene, leaving only a sliver of ancient mantle beneath the crust.

1 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard University, 20 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
2 Department of Geological Sciences, Gould-Simpson Building, Building 77, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85712, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ctlee{at}eps.harvard.edu

dagger    Present address: Department of Geology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA.

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
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Similar V/Sc Systematics in MORB and Arc Basalts: Implications for the Oxygen Fugacities of their Mantle Source Regions.
C.-T. AEOLUS LEE, W. P. LEEMAN, D. CANIL, and Z.-X. A LI (2005)
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Subducted carbonates, metasomatism of mantle wedges, and possible connections to diamond formation: An example from California.
M. N. Ducea, J. Saleeby, J. Morrison, and V. A. Valencia (2005)
American Mineralogist 90, 864-870
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Segmentation of the Laramide Slab--evidence from the southern Sierra Nevada region.
J. Saleeby (2003)
Geological Society of America Bulletin 115, 655-668
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Did lithospheric delamination trigger late Cenozoic potassic volcanism in the southern Sierra Nevada, California?.
G. L. Farmer, A. F. Glazner, and C. R. Manley (2002)
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