Sierra Drips CD Project page

What:

Removal of mantle lithosphere has become a popular hypothesis for many orogens, from the Appalachians to the Tibetan Plateau and from the Archean formation of lithosphere to ongoing tectonism in the Andean arc. The physical process remains poorly observed. The earlier Southern Sierra Continental Dynamics Project and Sierran Paradox CD Project have led to the suggestion that the Sierra lost mantle lithosphere under its southern part by about 3 Ma. This relatively young event occured at a transform boundary and thus lacks complications present in places like the Andes. This project and its companion EarthScope project (SNEP) seek to define the lithospheric structure and geological history of the Sierra and from that learn the importance of this foundering in California tectonics, the physical parameters controlling foundering, and the mechanism of foundering. This information should provide a better understanding of the physics of this process in general and allow for more careful application of this process as an explanation in other orogens.

Project personnel will be examining:

• the history of uplift and subsidence through geomorphology, low-temperature geochronology, and stratigraphy along the range
• seismotectonics of modern deformation
• the electrical structure of the lithosphere and asthenosphere under the region and its connection to seismic constraints
• changes in space and time in the mantle through xenoliths
• constraints on the evolution of the lithosphere along the Sierra through volcanic petrology and geochemistry
• the original production of high-density eclogitic rocks along the Mesozoic Sierran arc through petrologic models and geochemical observations
• geodynamics of mantle foundering through numerical experiments and the implications for volcanism, tectonism, and causes of foundering
• in the related SNEP group, work will define the seismological characteristics of the Sierran crust and mantle, ideally identifying variations in composition, temperature, strain history, and presence of volatiles

Who:

above is list of PIs/co-Is on both EarthScope (*) and Continental Dynamics projects. Zandt is lead on the 2005 EarthScope project, with Gilbert, Owens, and Jones. Jones is lead on the Continental Dynamics project with Anderson, Clark, Ducea, Elkins-Tanton, Glazner, Farmer, Molnar, Park, Saleeby, and Unruh.

Meetings:

• First joint SNEP/Sierra Drip CD meeting, eastern Sierra (Sorensen's Resort, Hope Valley), October 8-10, 2006.
• Special session at 2007 Fall AGU (session T31 : Foundering Lithosphere: Observations and Implications, with a Focus on
  the Sierra Nevada)
• Fall meeting with Sierra Drips CD, Tucson, Arizona, 2-4 November 2008.
• Final workshop for Sierra Drips, Boulder, Colorado 8-10 November 2009.

Fieldwork

2007:

• Mid-May, Farmer and Glazner in Carson Pass/Ebbetts Pass area
• May 11-16, Clark, Kings Canyon & Kern Canyon areas
• August, Clark, southern Sierra

Proposal and Figures:

2005 Proposal summary, description and refs PDF (12.6 Mb).

Final Figures for 2005 CD proposal

Figures considered for 2004 CD submission

Delamination animation (2.4 Mb)

The successful 2004 Earthscope proposal (Zandt et al, seismology only)

Figures page with figures in the 2003 EarthScope proposal. Old page with prototypes still available

• Animation of Sierran uplift histories (a figure from Jones et al)--shockwave.

Resources:

Weather/Access:

• California SNOTEL page (snow depths, water content)
• California Snowpack (Calif. Div. Water Resources)-more comprehensive-summary plot over region
• California snowdepth table (Weather Underground--one stop shopping....)
• USGS California streamflow page
• Streamflow graphs, last 7 days, northern Sierra and vicinity (can also build your own page )
• Forest service road conditions: (main stem roads; side roads will vary)
  • Sierra National Forest
  • Northern Inyo National Forest
  • Stanislaus National Forest
• Caltrans Mountain Highways page
• Yosemite National Park plowing update
• Daily weather forecasts:
  • Southern Sierra (NPS) to Yosemite
  • Foothills to north of Oakhurst ("Motherlode")
  • West slope, northern Sierra
  • Greater Tahoe area (down to Markleeville)
  • Mono County (east slope, Sierra)

GMT files: (and a simple script to build a station map)

• US Array stations (from website, as lon, lat, ID) (as proposed--see EarthScope for actual deployment locations)
• Trinet (CIT/SCEC) stations (so. CA) (lon, lat, station ID, station text, elevation)
• Trinet stations with BHZ channel (almost same as above) (so. CA)
• UNR broadbands reporting to IRIS (lon, lat, ID) (Nevada, eastern CA)
• UC Berkeley broadbands (lon, lat, elev, id, network id, station text, channels, on year, on JD, on time, off year, off JD, off time)

Abstracts:

(Seismological results from SNEP on the SNEP page)

Fall AGU, December 15-19 2008, San Francisco: See a list of presentations of relevance to the CD project (URLs below will expire shortly after AGU)

• T33D-2100, Cecil, M., M. Ducea, P. Reiners, A. Mulch, C. Allen, and I. Campbell, Constraining Paleotopography of the Sierra Nevada, California, Through U-Pb Detrital Zircon Analysis of Eocene River Deposits , PM poster
• GP41A-0774, S. K. Park and L. Ostos, Magnetotelluric images of the southern edge of the Gorda Plate, Northern California, AM poster
  
• GP41A-0775, Ostos, L., and S. K. Park, Magnetotelluric Transect Through Yosemite Reveals Evidence of Sierran Delamination, AM poster

Fall AGU, December 2007, San Francisco

• Clark, M. K., and K. A. Farley, Sierra Nevada river incision from apatite 4He/3He thermochronometry, Eos Trans. AGU, 88 (52), Fall Mtg. Suppl., Abstract T31E-03, 2007.
• Harig, C., P. Molnar, and G. Houseman, The growth of Rayleigh-Taylor instability under a shear-stress free top boundary condition, Eos Trans. AGU, 88 (52), Fall Mtg. Suppl., Abstract T31E-03, 2007.
• Levandowski, W., C. Jones, G. Nolet, B. Phinney, Mysterious Moho Beneath the Southern Sierra Nevada, Analyzed with Beam-Formed Receiver Functions, Eos Trans. AGU, 88 (52), Fall Mtg. Suppl., Abstract T33A-1148, 2007
• Ostos, L., and S.K. Park, Magnetotelluric Transect Through Yosemite National Park Provides a First Look at Deep Crust and Upper Mantle Electrical Conductivity, Eos Trans. AGU, 88 (52), Fall Mtg. Suppl., Abstract T31E-03, 2007.
• Saleeby, J., The western extent of the Sierra Nevada batholith in the Great Valley basement and its significance in underlying mantle dynamics, Eos Trans. AGU, 88 (52), Fall Mtg. Suppl., Abstract T31E-02, 2007.
  

IRIS Meeting, 19-21 June 2003, Fish Camp, CA: (click for abstract)

• Mihai N. Ducea, Jason Saleeby, Crustal production and loss in continental magmatic arcs; Evidence from the Sierra Nevada (talk, 4:30 Saturday, Salon V and VI)
• Craig H. Jones, G. Lang Farmer, Peter Molnar, Jeffrey R. Unruh, Delamination of the Sierra Nevada: Seismological observations and tectonic implications (poster) [pdf version of poster online, 2.3 Mb, click here]
• George Zandt, Hersh Gilbert, Thomas J. Owens, Drip Drag? (poster)

Reprints/Preprints of interest:

From the SierraDrip/SNEP groups: (reordered to be most recent first)

• Ducea, M.N., and Barton, M.N., Igniting flare-up events in Cordilleran arcs, Geology, in press., June 2007.
• Horodinksy, Y, Lee, C-T., and Ducea, M.N., An arc origin for Archean high MgO "eclogite" xenoliths? Archean continent formation by accretion of arc lithospheres and underthrusting of oceanic lithosphere, Earth and Planetary Sciences Letters, v. 256, 3-4, 510-520, 2007.
• Brady, R.J., Ducea, M.N., Kidder S. and J. Saleeby. The distribution of radiogenic heat production as a function of depth in the Sierra
  Nevada Batholith, California. Lithos, 86(3-4), 197-204, 2006.
• Cecil, M.R., M. N. Ducea, and P. W. Reiners, and C. G. Chase, Cenozoic exhumation of the northern Sierra Nevada, California, from (U-Th)/He thermochronology, Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., 118 (11-12): 1481-1488, 2006.
• Zeng, L., Saleeby, J., and Ducea, M.N., Non-modal crustal anatexis during the formation of migmatites, southern Sierra Nevada,
  California, Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, 150, 386-402, 2005
• Ducea, M.N., Saleeby, J., Morrison, J., and V.A. Valencia, Subducted carbonates and their role in the metasomatism of mantle wedges: An example from California, American Mineralogist, 90, 864-870, 2005.
• Clark, M. K., G. Maheo, J. Saleeby, and K. A. Farley, The non-equilibrium landscape of the southern Sierra Nevada, California, GSA Today, 15 (9), 4-10, 2005.
• Jones, C. H., G. L. Farmer, and J. R. Unruh, Tectonics of Pliocene removal of lithosphere of the Sierra Nevada, California, Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., 116 (11/12), 1408-1422, 2004.
• Zandt. G., H. Gilbert, T. J. Owens, M. Ducea, J. Saleeby, and C. H. Jones, Active foundering of a continental arc root beneath the southern Sierra Nevada, California, Nature, 431, 41-46, 2004. (Supplementary material)
• S. K. Park, Mantle heterogeneity beneath eastern California from magnetotelluric measurements, J. Geophys. Res., 109, B09406, doi:10.1029/2003JB002948, 2004.
• Boyd, O., C. H. Jones, A. F. Sheehan, Foundering lithosphere imaged beneath the southern Sierra Nevada, California, USA, Science,  305, 660-662, 2004. (Supplementary material)
• J. Saleeby and Z. Foster, Topographic Response to Mantle Lithosphere Removal in the Southern Sierra Nevada Region, California, Geology, 32 [3], p. 245–248; doi: 10.1130/G19958.1, 2004.
• G. M. Stock, R. S. Anderson, and Robert C. Finkel, Pace of landscape evolution in the Sierra Nevada, California,
  revealed by cosmogenic dating of cave sediments. Geology, 32, [3], p. 193–196; doi: 10.1130/G20197.1, 2004.
• Molnar, P. H., and C. H. Jones , A test of laboratory based rheological parameters of olivine from an analysis of late Cenozoic convective removal of mantle lithosphere beneath the Sierra Nevada, California, USA, Geophysical Journal International , doi: 10.1111/j.1365-246X.2004.02138, 156 , 555-564, 2004.
• M.N. Ducea, S. Kidder, G. Zandt, Arc composition at mid-crustal depths: Insights from the Coast Ridge Belt, Santa Lucia Mountains, California, Geophys. Res. Letts., 30 [13], 1703, doi: 10.1029/2002GL016297, 2003.
• S. K. Park and M. N. Ducea, Can in situ measurements of mantle electrical conductivity be used to infer properties of partial melts? J. Geophys. Res., 108 [B5], 2270, doi:10.1029/2002JB001899, 2003
• S. K. Park, and B. P. Wernicke, Electrical conductivity images of Quaternary faults and Tertiary detachments in the California Basin and Range, Tectonics, 22 [4], 1030 10.1029/2001TC001324, 2003.
• J. Saleeby,M. Ducea, D. Clemens-Knott, Production and loss of high-density batholithic root - southern Sierra Nevada, California, Tectonics, 22 [6], 1064, doi:10.1029/2002TC001374, 2003.
• G. Zandt, The Southern Sierra Nevada Drip and the Mantle Wind Direction Beneath the Southwestern United States, International Geology Review (Thompson Volume),45, 213-224, 2003.
• M. N. Ducea, Constraints on the bulk composition and root foundering rates of continental arcs: A California arc perspective, J. Geophys. Res., 107 [B11], 2304, doi:10.1029/2001JB000643, 2002

From other groups:

• K. Putirka and C. J. Busby, The tectonic significance of high-K₂O volcanism in the Sierra Nevada, California, Geology, 35 (10), 923-926, 2007. (will also be in GeoScienceWorld)
• Pelletier, J. D., Numerical modeling of the Cenozoic geomorphic evolution of the southern Sierra Nevada, California, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 259, Issues 1-2, p. 85-96, doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2007.04.030, 2007.
• Hasterok, D., and D. S. Chapman, Continental thermal isostasy: 2. Application to North America, J. Geophys. Res., 112, B06415, doi:10.1029/2006JB004664, 2007
• Yan, Z., and R. W. Clayton, Regional mapping of the crustal structure in southern California from receiver functions, J. Geophys. Res., 112, B05311, doi:10.1029/2006JB004622, 2007
• Le K, J. Lee, L.A. Owen, and R. Finkel, Late Quaternary slip rates along the Sierra Nevada frontal fault zone, California: Slip partitioning across the western margin of the Eastern California Shear Zone-Basin and Range Province, Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., 119 (1-2): 240-256, 2007.
• Stern, T. A., W. R. Stratford, and M. L. Salmon, Subduction evolution and mantle dynamics at a continental margin: Central North Island, New Zealand, Rev. Geophys., 44. RG4002, doi:10.1029/2005RG000171, 2006. (invokes R-T instability for processes, including uplift and subsidence).
• Fadil, A., P. Vernant, S. McClusky, R. Reilinger, F. Gomez, D. Ben Sari, T. Mourabit, K. Feigl, and M. Barazangi (2006), Active tectonics of the western Mediterranean: Geodetic evidence for rollback of a delaminated subcontinental lithospheric slab beneath the Rif Mountains, Morocco, Geology, 34 (7), doi: 10.1130/G22291.1, 529-532. (Documents 3 mm/yr plate-motion-normal movement of Rif Mtns to SSW, opening behind, closing in front, very similar to motion of Sierra, though I would dispute their preferred mechanism).
• Le Pourhiet, L. , M. Gurnis, J. Saleeby, Mantle instability beneath the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California and Death Valley extension, Earth and Planetary Science Letters 251 (2006) 104 – 119, doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2006.08.028, 2006.
• Mulch, A., S. A. Graham, and C. P. Chamberlain, Hydrogen Isotopes in Eocene River Gravels and Paleoelevation of the Sierra Nevada, Science, 313. no. 5783, pp. 87 - 89, doi: 10.1126/science.1125986, 2006.
• Lee, C.-T. A., X. Cheng, and U. Horodyskyj ,The development and refinement of continental arcs by primary basaltic magmatism, garnet pyroxenite accumulation, basaltic recharge and delamination: insights from the Sierra Nevada, California, Contrib Mineral Petrol, 151 (2), p. 222-242, doi:10.1007/s00410-005-0056-1, 2006
• Yang, Y., and D. W. Forsyth, Rayleigh wave phase velocities, small-scale convection, and azimuthal anisotropy beneath southern California, J. Geophys. Res., 111 (B7): Art. No. B07306, doi:10.1029/2005JB004180, JUL 25 2006
• Whitehouse, P. L., P. C. England, and G. A. Houseman, A physical model for the motion of the Sierra Block relative to North America, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 237, 590 – 600 doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2005.03.028, 2005
• Horton, T.W., D. K. Sjostrom, M. J. Abruzzese, M.A. Poage, J. R. Waldbauer, M. Hren, J. Wooden, C. P. Chamberlain, Spatial and temporal variation of Cenozoic surface elevation in the Great Basin and Sierra Nevada, Am. J. Sci., 304 (10): 862-888, 2004
• Louie, J. N., W. Thelen, S. B. Smith, J. B. Scott, M. Clarka, and S. Pullammanappallil, The northern Walker Lane refraction experiment:
  Pn arrivals and the northern Sierra Nevada root, Tectonophysics, 388, 253 – 269, doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2004.07.042 , 2004

Abstracts from other groups of interest:

• Kouwenberg, L. L. R., J. Broughton, and J. C. McElwain, The potential of stomatal frequency analysis as a paleo-altimeter, AGU Fall meeting, T23C-0579, 2005. Abstract at AGU; poster at UCMP (gets subsidence in northern Sierra since 18-22 Ma)

Other info:

SNEP seismic experiment info on SNEP page.

Some other info on Sierran Paradox experiment webpage

Support for the research discussed here has been provided by the National Science Foundation's Continental Dynamics Program through grants 0607831 to C. Jones, R. Anderson, G. L. Farmer, and P. Molnar at CU Boulder, 0607349 to S. Park at UCR, 0607458 to M. Clark at U. Mich., 0607625 to J. Unruh at Wm. Lettis Assoc., 0607702 to L. Elkins-Tanton at Brown Univ., 0607499 to A. Glazner at UNC, 0606903 to J. Saleeby at Caltech, and 0606967 to M. Ducea at Univ. Ariz.. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recomendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).

C. H. Jones | CIRES | Dept. of Geological Sciences | Univ. of Colorado at Boulder