Geology of a Part of the Panamint Range, California

Abstract

The Panamint Range is a tilted fault-block, uplifted probably in Tertiary time and rejuvenated by very complex recent faulting on the west. This great block is approximately 100 miles long, but the reconnaissance geologic map covers only a tract in the southern portion of the range about 21 miles from north to south. The oldest formation consists of a great thickness of undifferentiated and regionally metamorphosed rocks, embracing schists, gneisses, and marble, predominantly of sedimentary origin, injected by granitic rocks and cut by diabase dikes. These are overlain by less highly metamorphosed slaty schists and dolomitic limestones, separated by a nonconformity from a succession of rocks consisting largely of limestones, dolomites, and schists. The age of the rock formations is unknown, but is believed to range from pre-Cambrian to Lower Paleozoic. Structure within the range is not entirely clear and that of certain rock masses is indeterminable. The older rocks on the west slope show a westward dip of the foliation, while the younger formations, forming the crest of the range and the Death Valley side, dip gently eastward.