Publication Date:
2011-12-01
Description:
This Geosphere themed issue is an outgrowth of our Penrose Conference: Origin and Uplift of the Sierra Nevada, California, which was held in Bridgeport, California, August 16–20, 2010. The theme is here expanded to include the Walker Lane (Fig. 1), since a large number of our Penrose abstracts were oriented to that topic, and because that region is no less a part of the Sierran story than the high peaks themselves. A fundamental question for the conference and themed issue is “How did the Sierra Nevada form?” The question can mean many things to disparate disciplines. One might refer to the age and origin of the rocks that form the Sierra Nevada batholith, or instead to the time at which such rocks were uplifted to form the topographic crest of the eastern Sierra. One might also speak to the origin of canyons and peaks formed by erosion as much as uplift, or to the time at which the Sierra's varied present-day ecological zones were established. The answers to these questions can be quite different, but are not necessarily independent, as insights from one may lend insight to another. Finally, the complete story of the Sierra also cannot be told without the tectonic forces that act on the Sierran crust, which involves the evolution of the San Andreas Fault system and the opening of the Gulf of California.
Electronic ISSN:
1553-040X
Topics:
Geosciences
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