Geology of Central Panamint Range: ABSTRACT

Abstract

The area is west of Death Valley, between Stovepipe Wells and Wildrose Canyon, a distance of 25 miles. Archean gneiss, exposed in two small areas, one at Wildrose Station, one on south flank of Tucki Mountain, is overlain by a 2,000-foot series of meta-graywackers and meta-conglomerates best exposed in Wildrose Canyon (Surprise formation? Upper Algonkian), and widely exposed 3,000 or more feet of younger series of variably metamorphosed graywackle, shale, conglomerate, dolomite, and gypsum (Telescope group? Upper Algonkian). East-dipping Paleozoic strata make up the east flank of the range: Lower Cambrian, Noonday dolomite (200-1,000 feet), Johnnie formation (2,500), Sterling quartzite (1,500), Wood Canyon formation (2,900); Middle Cambrian, Cadiz formation (700), Bonanza King formation (1,250), Racetrack dolomite (1,950); Upper Cambrian, Nopah formation (1,700); Lower Ordovician, Pogonip formation (1,950); Middle Ordovician, Eureka quartzite (400); Upper Ordovician, Ely Springs dolomite (1,300); Silurian (?), Hidden Valley dolomite (?) (700); Devonian, Lost Burro formation (l,500). Post-Devonian strata are not yet mapped. Total thickness, Cambrian through Devonian (19,550), of which 13,650 are Cambrian. A 12-mile-long quartz monzonite intrusive of presumed Nevadan age near the ccenter of the range appears laccolithic. Structural features include the east-dipping monocline of Paleozoic sediments on the east flank of the range, two northwest-trending anticlines in Algonkian strata on the west and south flanks of Tucki Mountain, and widely prevalent flat to low angle faulting. End_of_Article - Last_Page 140------------