Nevada Test Site field trip guidebook 1984
- comps.
The Nevada Test Site (NTS), located in southern Nevada, was established in 1950 as an area for testing nuclear devices. Various geologic studies performed in conjunction with these activities as well as recent work on a proposed radioactive waste repository are reported in detail in this guidebook and include studies on the structure, stratigraphy, geochemistry, and physical properties of the rocks at NTS. The oldest sequence of rocks exposed in the NTS region is comprised of late Precambrian to Permian miogeoclinal rocks which were subsequently deformed during Jura-Cretaceous contraction, probably related to the Sevier orogeny. These rocks were then locally intruded by late Mesozoic (approx.93 m.y.BP) plutonic rocks related to the Sierra Nevada batholith. Voluminous calcalkaline ash-flow tuffs and associated volcanic rocks originating from the Timber Mountain-Oasis Valley caldera complex were extruded over much of NTS and adjacent areas from approx.16 to 10 m.y.BP. Peralkaline rocks intercalated in the volcanic sequence issued from both Silent Canyon (15 to 13 m.y.BP) and Black Mountain (9 to 7 m.y.BP) volcanic centers. The youngest igneous rocks at NTS are composed of basaltic rocks, primarily hawaiite, the older of which are associated with the evolving silicic volcanic centers and the younger associated with Cenozoic regional extension. Late Tertiary to Recent alluvium derived from the ranges form large, coalescing fans which fill the basins with sediments and reach thicknesses of over 1 km. 45 refs., 21 figs.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Lab., NM (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- OSTI ID:
- 5563646
- Report Number(s):
- LA-10428-MS; ON: DE85015362
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
NEVADA TEST SITE
GEOLOGY
GEOCHEMISTRY
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
IGNEOUS ROCKS
STRATIGRAPHY
TECTONICS
VOLCANIC ROCKS
VOLCANISM
CHEMISTRY
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
ROCKS
US DOE
US ORGANIZATIONS
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