Large Laramide dextral offset across Owens Valley, California, and its possible relation to tectonic unroofing of the southern Sierra Nevada

Epeirogenic transients related to mantle lithosphere removal in the southern Sierra Nevada region, California: Part II. Implications of rock uplift and basin subsidence relations

“…Major crustal structures that developed during this regime are shown on Figure 2 as the Kern Canyon-White Wolf and proto-Owens Valley transfer zones, the Isabella and Kern range front breakaway zones, the Maricopa supradetachment basin, and the southern Sierra detachment system. Figure 2 also shows the presently known extent of the Late Cretaceous southern Sierra-western Mojave extensional terrane and its southwest extension into the displaced Salinia batholithic terrane (after Grove, 1993;Saleeby, 2003;Bartley et al, 2007;Ducea et al, 2009;Saleeby et al, 2009b;Chapman et al, 2010. The principal tie point between the Salinian basement exposures and those of the western Mojave, across the San Andreas fault, is shown after Huffman (1972).…”

“…2), with its transition into the northern Great Valley marked by the Upper Cretaceous shoreline environment that extended across northern Sierra basement (Nilsen, 1984;Harwood et al, 1981;Harwood and Helley, 1987;Batt et al, 2010). The steeper longitudinal gradient that slopes SE off the range crest culmination represents a paleogradient that developed in response to Late Cretaceous large-magnitude extension of the southern Sierra Nevada-western Mojave region (Wood and Saleeby, 1998;Bartley et al, 2007;Saleeby et al, 2007;Chapman et al, 2010. Large-magnitude extension of this region was controlled by segmentation patterns in the Late Cretaceous convergent margin (Malin et al, 1995;Saleeby, 2003;Liu et al, 2010), denoted on Figure 2 by the infl ection in the Rand (subduction) megathrust lateral ramp.…”

Structural Evolution of the East Sierra Valley System (Owens Valley and Vicinity), California: A Geologic and Geophysical Synthesis

“…Recent studies, e.g., [15,16,34] have reported evidence of ca. 65 km of total right-lateral displacement across the ESVS during at least two episodes of movement since Late Cretaceous time.…”

“…Although the ESVS is tectonically active, post-batholithic deformation in the region, including exhumation and tilting of the Inyo Mountains and possible dextral faulting in the ESVS, extends back to the Late Cretaceous or Early Cenozoic, e.g., [15,16,24,34,35], with extension leading to development of the modern valley system beginning in the middle Miocene, e.g., [17,22,24,36].…”

“…Numerous additional studies have investigated a variety of other topics including pre-late Cenozoic structural evolution, e.g., [15,16], geomorphology [17,18], active deformation based on geodetic and GPS data, e.g., [19][20][21], thermochronometry, e.g., [22][23][24], subsurface structure based on reflection seismic and lithologic log data, e.g., [25], seismicity, e.g., [13,26], and hydrology, e.g., [27]. Because much of the research has focused on specific areas, topics, or intervals of geologic time, and because the resulting literature is so voluminous, gaining an overview of the geologic history and evolution of the entire ESVS region is difficult, although Phillips [28] recently provided a valuable summary of late Miocene and younger events with emphasis on the history of the paleo-Owens River drainage.…”