On some aspects of the geology of the Sierra Nevada

Abstract

The Sierra Nevada is recognized globally for its spectacular exposures of a Phanerozoic composite batholithic belt. In their "classic paper," "The Geology of the Sierra Nevada," Bateman and Wahrhaftig (1966) focused a great deal on the nature and petrogenesis of the batholith, but they also related the batholith to the structure of its metamorphic framework rocks, as well as to the modem physiography of the range. This classic work was the first effort to synthesize such a broad range of topics on Sierra Nevada geology. Paul Bateman was then spearheading a major effort by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to map systematically a large swath across the central part of the Sierra. Even though Bateman's emphasis was on the batholith, he made major contributions in the exploration of the metamorphic framework for the batholith and also vigorously pursued geomorphic aspects of the range. Clyde Wahrhaftig was part of the USGS team that systematically worked across the central part of the range. He was a major driving force in ideas concerning geomorphology of the range, and he also made significant contributions in the study of batholithic and framework rocks. My initial research in the Sierra Nevada focused primarily on the framework rocks, but over the past decade has shifted to issues in broad batholithic structure and petrogenesis, as well as the range's physiography. For this reason, Bateman and Wahrhaftig (1966) is of great interest to me in respect to identifying classic works in Cordilleran geology. In the past three decades, a tremendous amount of research has been done on the batholith and its metamorphic framework, and to a lesser extent on the physiographic evolution of the range. The gross structure of the metamorphic framework, the structure and petrogenesis of the batholith, and relations between the batholith and modem physiography of the range are the topics that will be covered in this paper. We begin with a general discussion of the framework rocks.

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