Proterozoic and Lower Cambrian miogeoclinal rocks of Snow Lake pendant, Yosemite-Emigrant Wilderness, Sierra Nevada, California: Evidence for major Early Cretaceous dextral translation

Abstract

Detailed stratigraphic and structural studies at Snow Lake pendant have established new evidence for the presence of uppermost Precambrian and Lower Cambrian miogeoclinal strata within the axial region of the Sierra Nevada batholith. Lithologic and stratigraphic data along with trace fossils, a distinctive Triassic overlap sequence (Fairview Valley Formation?), dikes probably related to the Jurassic Independence dike swarm, and structural history suggest that the older rocks of Snow Lake pendant correlate with the Stirling Quartzite, Wood Canyon Formation, Zabriskie Quartzite, and Carrara Formation in the western Mojave Desert and San Bernardino Mountains. This correlation implies approximately 500 km of dextral transport of the rocks of Snow Lake pendant along the proposed Mojave-Snow Lake fault. Movement on the fault probably took place after 148 Ma, the age of the Independence dike swarm, and prior to 110 Ma, the age of plutons in the central part of the Sierra Nevada batholith.