The Tertiary gravels of the Sierra Nevada of California

Lindgren, Waldemar

doi:10.3133/pp73

Cited by 118 publications

(234 citation statements)

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“…Cenozoic geologic history includes uplift and tilting of the Sierra Nevada and at least two late Quaternary glaciations (Lindgren, 1911;Bateman and Wahrhaftig, 1966;Christensen, 1966;James et al, 2002). Uplift and tilting reorganized drainage networks and initiated a period of sustained channel incision.…”

Section: Geologic and Mining Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Auriferous sediments, deposited by the ancestral Yuba River (Whitney, 1880;Lindgren, 1911;Yeend, 1974), were hydraulically mined during the California Gold Rush of the mid-to late 1800s and during a period of protracted twentieth century licensed mining. Hydraulic mining involved directing high-pressure water cannons at Eocene gravel exposures (Fig.…”

Section: Geologic and Mining Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Conceptual model of sediment processes in the upper Yuba River watershed, Sierra Nevada, CA

et al. 2005

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This study examines the development of a conceptual model of sediment processes in the upper Yuba River watershed; and we hypothesize how components of the conceptual model may be spatially distributed using a geographical information system (GIS). The conceptual model illustrates key processes controlling sediment dynamics in the upper Yuba River watershed and was tested and revised using field measurements, aerial photography, and low elevation videography. Field reconnaissance included mass wasting and channel storage inventories, assessment of annual channel change in upland tributaries, and evaluation of the relative importance of sediment sources and transport processes. Hillslope erosion rates throughout the study area are relatively low when compared to more rapidly eroding landscapes such as the Pacific Northwest and notable hillslope sediment sources include highly erodible andesitic mudflows, serpentinized ultramafics, and unvegetated hydraulic mine pits. Mass wasting dominates surface erosion on the hillslopes; however, erosion of stored channel sediment is the primary contributor to annual sediment yield. We used GIS to spatially distribute the components of the conceptual model and created hillslope erosion potential and channel storage models. The GIS models exemplify the conceptual model in that landscapes with low potential evapotranspiration, sparse vegetation, steep slopes, erodible geology and soils, and high road densities display the greatest hillslope erosion potential and channel storage increases with increasing stream order. In-channel storage in upland tributaries impacted by hydraulic mining is an exception. Reworking of stored hydraulic mining sediment in low-order tributaries continues to elevate upper Yuba River sediment yields. Finally, we propose that spatially distributing the components of a conceptual model in a GIS framework provides a guide for developing more detailed sediment budgets or numerical models making it an inexpensive way to develop a roadmap for understanding sediment dynamics at a watershed scale. Published by Elsevier B.V.

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Section: Geologic and Mining Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Geologic and Mining Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Conceptual model of sediment processes in the upper Yuba River watershed, Sierra Nevada, CA

et al. 2005

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“…Negligible additional uplift occurred until after about 5 Ma when the present elevation would have been obtained. This model dates back at least to the time of Waldemar Lindgren (1911) and is based almost entirely on geomorphologic evidence, reinforced lately by potassium-argon ages of overlying late Cenozoic volcanic rocks (Wakabayashi and Sawyer 2001, and comprehensive references therein). Part A of Figure 16 is an attempt to show how this particular uplift history might connect with the western part of the Great Basin Altiplano; the figure involves a gross (more than sixfold) linear extrapolation of the slopes of Eocene Auriferous Gravel calculated and projected by Yeend (1974).…”

Section: Character Of the Western Margin Of The Altiplanomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Wakabayashi and Sawyer 2001). Slope of gravel with confidence limits extrapolated from Yeend (1974) using method of Lindgren (1911) for western sector of 4.5^0.5 m/km (20 -25 feet/mile) and using Yeend's estimate of 11.8^0.5 m/km (60 -64 feet/mile) eastward. Distances and elevations shown for present day and reconstructed distances adjusted to 50% extension in the Great Basin.…”

Section: Character Of the Western Margin Of The Altiplanomentioning

confidence: 99%

The Great Basin Altiplano during the middle Cenozoic ignimbrite flareup: insights from volcanic rocks

Best

Barr

Christiansen

et al. 2009

International Geology Review

108

125

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Uncertainty surrounds the fate of the orogenic plateau in what is now the Great Basin in western Utah and Nevada, which resulted from the Mesozoic and earliest Cenozoic contractile deformations and crustal thickening. Although there is some consensus regarding the gravitational collapse of the plateau by extensional faulting and consequent crustal thinning, whether or not the plateau existed during the middle Cenozoic Great Basin ignimbrite flareup -one of the grandest expressions of continental volcanism in the geologic record -had remained in doubt. We use compositions of contemporaneous calc-alkaline lava flows as well as configurations of the ignimbrite sheets to show that the Great Basin area during the middle Cenozoic was a relatively smooth plateau underlain by unusually thick crust. We compare analyses of 376 intermediate-composition lava flows in the Great Basin that were extruded at 42 -17 Ma with compositions of .6000 analyses of the late Cenozoic lava flows in continental volcanic arcs that correlate roughly with known crustal thickness. This comparison indicates that the middle Cenozoic Great Basin crust was much thicker than the present ca. 30 km thickness, likely as much as 60 -70 km. If isostatic equilibrium prevailed, this unusually thick continental crust must have supported high topography. This high terrain in SE Nevada and SW Utah was progressively smoothed as successive ignimbrite outflow sheets were emplaced over areas currently as much as tens of thousands of square kilometres to aggregate thicknesses of as much as hundreds of metres. The generally small between-site variations in the palaeomagnetic directions of individual sheets lend further support for a relatively smooth landscape over which the sheets were draped. We conclude that during the middle Cenozoic, especially towards the close of the ignimbrite flareup, this Great Basin area was a relatively flat plateau, and because it was also high in elevation, we refer to it as an Altiplano. It was not unlike the present-day Altiplano-Puna in the tectonically similar central Andes, where an ignimbrite flareup comparable to that in the Great Basin occurred at ca. 9-3 Ma. Outflow ignimbrite sheets that were deposited from 35 to 23 Ma on the progressively smoothed Altiplano in south-eastern Nevada were derived from source calderas to the west. Of the 12 major sheets from seven sources, nine are distributed unevenly east of their sources while the remaining three sheets are spread about as far east as west of their sources. This eccentricity of sources near the western margin of 75% of the sheets indicates the existence of a NS-trending topographic barrier in central Nevada that restricted westward dispersal of ash flows. In a symmetric manner, eastward dispersal of ash flows from sources farther west seemed to have been impeded by this same topographic barrier. The westward dispersal was controlled in part by westward-draining stream valleys incised in the sloping flank of the Great Basin Vol. 51, Nos. 7 -8, July-August 2009, 589-633 A...

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“…Placer gold occurrence has been attributed to primary, secondary and a combination of primary and secondary formation [3]. In the most established theory of primary placer formation, a gold mass forms as a lode deposit during a hydrothermal event and survives physical and chemical weathering as native gold grains due to the low chemical reactivity and malleability of gold [1,4]. However, a secondary, accretionary origin for some placer gold has been suggested by observations of bacterioform gold, high-purity gold overgrowths and nanoparticulate gold in biomats [3,[5][6][7][8][9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biological and Geochemical Development of Placer Gold Deposits at Rich Hill, Arizona, USA

et al. 2018

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Placer gold from the Devils Nest deposits at Rich Hill, Arizona, USA, was studied using a range of micro-analytical and microbiological techniques to assess if differences in (paleo)-environmental conditions of three stratigraphically-adjacent placer units are recorded by the gold particles themselves. High-angle basin and range faulting at 5-17 Ma produced a shallow basin that preserved three placer units. The stratigraphically-oldest unit is thin gold-rich gravel within bedrock gravity traps, hosting elongated and flattened placer gold particles coated with manganese-, iron-, barium-(Mn-Fe-Ba) oxide crusts. These crusts host abundant nano-particulate and microcrystalline secondary gold, as well as thick biomats. Gold surfaces display unusual plumate-dendritic structures of putative secondary gold. A new micro-aerophilic Betaproteobacterium, identified as a strain of Comamonas testosteroni, was isolated from these biomats. Significantly, this "black" placer gold is the radiogenically youngest of the gold from the three placer units. The middle unit has well-rounded gold nuggets with deep chemical weathering rims, which likely recorded chemical weathering during a wetter period in Arizona's history. Biomats, nano-particulate gold and secondary gold growths were not observed here. The uppermost unit is a pulse placer deposited by debris flows during a recent drier period. Deep cracks and pits in the rough and angular gold from this unit host biomats and nano-particulate gold. During this late arid period, and continuing to the present, microbial communities established within the wet, oxygen-poor bedrock traps of the lowermost placer unit, which resulted in biological modification of placer gold chemistry, and production of Mn-Fe-Ba oxide biomats, which have coated and cemented both gold and sediments. Similarly, deep cracks and pits in gold from the uppermost unit provided a moist and sheltered micro-environment for additional gold-tolerant biological communities. In conclusion, placer gold from the Devils Nest deposits at Rich Hill, Arizona, USA, preserves a detailed record of physical, chemical and biological modifications.

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The Tertiary gravels of the Sierra Nevada of California

Cited by 118 publications

References 0 publications

Conceptual model of sediment processes in the upper Yuba River watershed, Sierra Nevada, CA

Conceptual model of sediment processes in the upper Yuba River watershed, Sierra Nevada, CA

The Great Basin Altiplano during the middle Cenozoic ignimbrite flareup: insights from volcanic rocks

Biological and Geochemical Development of Placer Gold Deposits at Rich Hill, Arizona, USA

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