The Hurd Peak gneiss of the Long Lake shear zone, eastern Sierra Nevada, California
- Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Dept. of Earth and Space Sciences
The Hurd Peak gneiss is located within the Long Lake valley of the east-central Sierra Nevada, California. This unit is the principle orthogneiss in Hathaway's (1993) Long Lake shear zone. The rock shows porphyroclasts of plagioclase and quartz, abundant mafic enclaves, and cross-cutting field associations which suggest that the gneiss had a plutonic protolith. The gneiss varies from biotite-poor nearest the contact with the Lamarck to biotite-rich nearest Long Lake. The contact zone between the gneiss and the Lamarck pluton ranges from sharp to gradational and from migmatitic to mixed, i.e., the mixed zone being greater than 50% intermingled dikes of 10 cm or greater thickness. In places this contact is marked by a quartz-free biotite hornfels approximately 5 m thick. Based on their relative deformation, at least 3 suites of aplite dikes cross-cut the gneiss, and 5 other lithologies, including basaltic, mixed, composite, andesitic, and quartz dioritic compositions, also cross-cut the gneiss. The Rb-Sr whole rock isochron age of the Hurd Peak gneiss has been determined to be 90.2 Ma. The authors interpret this isochron to be the result of mobilization of the Rb-Sr isotopic system during intrusion of the Lamarck Granodiorite (90 Ma); this may represent a regional cooling age. The initial [sup 87]/Sr[sup 86]Sr ratio of the gneiss is 0.7098, i.e., much more evolved than the surrounding plutons which have [sup 87]Sr/[sup 86]Sr ratios near 0.706. Sr model ages indicate that the protolith of the gneiss is considerably older than 90 Ma, one such calculation suggests an age of approximately 250 Ma. Single crystals of zircon have been isolated from the gneiss for U-Pb dating, and analytical work on the zircons is presently on-going.
- OSTI ID:
- 5100114
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9305259-; CODEN: GAAPBC
- Journal Information:
- Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States), Vol. 25:5; Conference: 89. annual meeting of the Cordilleran Section and the 46th annual meeting of the Rocky Mountain Section of the Geological Society of America (GSA), Reno, NV (United States), 19-21 May 1993; ISSN 0016-7592
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
CALIFORNIA
GEOLOGIC FORMATIONS
ISOTOPE DATING
PETROLOGY
GNEISSES
ARGON ISOTOPES
GEOLOGIC FAULTS
GEOLOGY
SIERRA NEVADA COLORADO
ZIRCON
AGE ESTIMATION
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
GEOLOGIC FRACTURES
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
ISOTOPES
METAMORPHIC ROCKS
MINERALS
MOUNTAINS
NORTH AMERICA
ROCKS
SILICATE MINERALS
USA
580000* - Geosciences