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Abstract The Mineral King pendant is an ~15-km-long, northwest-striking assemblage of Permian to mid-Cretaceous metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks that form a steeply dipping wall-rock screen between large mid-Cretaceous plutons of the Sierra Nevada batholith (California, USA). Pendant rocks are generally well layered and characterized by northwest-striking, steeply dipping, layer-parallel cleavage and flattening foliation and steeply northwest-plunging stretching lineation. Northwest-elongate lithologic units with well-developed parallel layering and an absence of prominent faults or shear zones suggests a degree of stratigraphic continuity. However, U-Pb zircon dating of felsic metavolcanic and volcanosedimentary rocks across the pendant indicates a complex pattern of structurally interleaved units with ages ranging from 277 Ma to 101 Ma. We utilize a compilation of 39 existing and new U-Pb zircon ages and four reported fossil localities to construct a revised geologic map of the Mineral King pendant that emphasizes age relationships rather than lithologic or stratigraphic correlations as in previous studies. We find that apparently coherent lithologic units are lensoidal and discontinuous and are cryptically interleaved at meter to kilometer scales. Along-strike facies changes and depositional unconformities combine with kilometer-scale tight folding and structural imbrication to create a complex map pattern with numerous discordant units. Discrete faults or major shear zones are not readily apparent in the pendant, although such structures are necessary to produce the structural complications revealed by our new mapping and U-Pb dating. We interpret the Mineral King pendant to be structurally imbricated by a combination of kilometer-scale tight to isoclinal folding and cryptic faulting, accentuated by, and eventually obscured by, pervasive flattening and vertical stretching that preceded and accompanied emplacement of the bounding mid-Cretaceous plutons. Deformation in the Mineral King pendant represents a significant episode of pure-shear-dominated transpression between ca. 115 Ma and 98 Ma that adds to growing evidence for a major mid-Cretaceous transpressional orogenic event affecting the western U.S. Cordillera. 

Abstract The Laramide orogeny is a pivotal time in the geological development of western North America, but its driving mechanism is controversial. Most prominent models suggest this event was caused by the collision of an oceanic plateau with the Southern California Batholith (SCB) which caused the angle of subduction beneath the continent to shallow and led to shut-down of the arc. Here, we use over 280 zircon and titanite Pb/U ages from the SCB to establish the timing and duration of magmatism, metamorphism and deformation. We show that magmatism was surging in the SCB from 90 to 70 Ma, the lower crust was hot, and cooling occurred after 75 Ma. These data contradict plateau underthrusting and flat-slab subduction as the driving mechanism for early Laramide deformation. We propose that the Laramide orogeny is a two-stage event consisting of: 1) an arc ‘flare-up’ phase in the SCB from 90-75 Ma; and 2) a widespread mountain building phase in the Laramide foreland belt from 75-50 Ma that is linked to subduction of an oceanic plateau. 

Nearly two decades since the first oxygen isotope (δ18O) studies of zircon in the Sierra Nevada Batholith, California, USA, a far more extensive picture of spatial and temporal patterns of magmatic δ18O has emerged in parallel with a tenfold increase in geochronologic coverage, and many new radiogenic isotope (Sr, Nd, Hf) analyses. Over this time, models of Cordilleran-type arc systems have sought to elucidate flare-ups of magmatism as cyclic, with radiogenic isotope “excursions” tracing variable input of crust and mantle into arc magmas [e.g., 1]. Such models haven't incorporated oxygen isotopes to full advantage because of apparent complexity in the signals they record [2]. New, single zircon δ18O analyses—of plutonic, volcanic, and detrital zircon—from the Sierra amplifiing the findings of previous studies [e.g., 3], that δ18O records are well-suited for detecting relatively fast (<10 million year) recycling of subducted supracrustal rock and accreted terranes in forearc settings. Such recycling is not resolved by radiogenic isotope systems. A wealth of new volcanic δ18O zircon data from the Sierra, along with δ18O of hydrothermal minerals like skarn garnet, also records periods of significant δ18O “pull-downs” as lower-δ18O hydrothermal waters alter surface rocks whose assimilation subsequently embeds these surface signals in silicic volcanic systems. Such re-melting and volcanic episodes are often brief (< 5 million years) and small volume, so have often been overlooked, however such, δ18O values may be key to detecting plutonic from volcanic zircon in detrital records when used in conjunction with trace elements. Low-δ18O domains are becoming recognized in other arcs and to be useful to detect episodic resampling of crustal domains [4]. Morover, discovery of fossil low-δ18O systems in screens of wallrock in mid-crustal levels [e.g., 5] documents wholesale rapid burial of these domains in arcs, during transitions to episodes of shortening or transpression. All together, zircon δ18O uniquely traces surface- to-source transport and recycling in Cordilleran arcs as it relates to changing arc stress regime, at periods that may fail to be recorded in excursions of radiogenic isotopes, such as relaxation of stress regimes in upper plate domains. [1] DeCelles, P. G. et al. Nature Geoscience 2, 251-257 (2009) ; [2] Chapman, J. B. et al. Lithos 398- 299, (2021); [3] Lackey, J. S., et. al. J. Petrology 49, 1397–1426 (2008); [4] Turnbull, R. E. et al. Gondwana Res. 121, 436-471; [5] Ryan-Davis, J. et al. Contributions to Min. and Pet 174, 19 (2019) 

Abstract The 119 Ma Dinkey Dome pluton in the central Sierra Nevada Batholith is a peraluminous granite and contains magmatic garnet and zircon that are complexly zoned with respect to oxygen isotope ratios. Intracrystalline SIMS analysis tests the relative importance of magmatic differentiation processes vs. partial melting of metasedimentary rocks. Whereas δ18O values of bulk zircon concentrates are uniform across the entire pluton (7.7‰ VSMOW), zircon crystals are zoned in δ18O by up to 1.8‰, and when compared to late garnet, show evidence of changing magma chemistry during multiple interactions of the magma with wall rock during crustal transit. The evolution from an early high-δ18O magma [δ18O(WR) = 9.8‰] toward lower values is shown by high-δ18O zircon cores (7.8‰) and lower δ 18O rims (6.8‰). Garnets from the northwest side of the pluton show a final increase in δ18O with rims reaching 8.1‰. In situ REE measurements show zircon is magmatic and grew before garnets. Additionally, δ18O in garnets from the western side of the pluton are consistently higher (avg = 7.3‰) relative to the west (avg = 5.9‰). These δ18O variations in zircon and garnet record different stages of assimilation and fractional crystallization whereby an initially high-δ18O magma partially melted low-δ18O wallrock and was subsequently contaminated near the current level of emplacement by higher δ18O melts. Collectively, the comparison of δ18O zoning in garnet and zircon shows how a peraluminous pluton can be constructed from multiple batches of variably contaminated melts, especially in early stages of arc magmatism where magmas encounter significant heterogeneity of wall-rock assemblages. Collectively, peraluminous magmas in the Sierran arc are limited to small <100 km2 plutons that are intimately associated with metasedimentary wall rocks and often surrounded by later and larger metaluminous tonalite and granodiorite plutons. The general associations suggest that early-stage arc magmas sample crustal heterogeneities in small melt batches, but that with progressive invigoration of the arc, such compositions are more effectively blended with mantle melts in source regions. Thus, peraluminous magmas provide important details of the nascent Sierran arc and pre-batholithic crustal structure. 

The Mineral King pendant in the Sierra Nevada batholith (California, USA) contains at least four rhyolite units that record high-silica volcanism during magmatic lulls in the Sierran magmatic arc. U-Th-Pb, trace element (single crystal spot analyses via sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe–reverse geometry, SHRIMP-RG), and bulk oxygen isotope analyses of zircon from these units provide a record of the age and compositional properties of the magmas that is not available from whole-rock analysis because of intense hydrothermal alteration of the pendant. U-Pb spot ages reveal that the Mineral King rhyolites are from two periods, the Early Jurassic (197 Ma) and the Early Cretaceous (134–136 Ma). These two rhyolite packages have zircons with distinct compositional trends for trace elements and δ18O; the Early Jurassic rhyolite shows less evidence of crustal influences on the rhyolites and the Early Cretaceous rhyolite shows evidence of increasing crustal influences and crystal recycling. These rhyolites capture evidence of magmatism during two periods of low magmatic flux in the Sierran Arc; however, they still show that magmas were derived from interactions of maturing continental crust, increasing from the Early to Late Jurassic. This finding likely reflects the transition of the North America margin from one of docking island arcs in the Early Jurassic to one of a more mature continental arc in the Early Cretaceous. This also shows the utility in examining zircon spot ages combined with trace element and bulk isotopic composition to unlock the petrogenetic history of altered volcanic rocks. 

The Ash Mountain Complex (AMC) in the western Sierra Nevada batholith (SNB; California, USA) is an exposure of six compositionally diverse intrusive lithologies with clear crosscutting relationships that permit a focused investigation of magma source characteristics and the relative roles of petrogenetic processes on the evolution of the system. We use new field observations, zircon U-Pb dates, major and trace element data, and Sr-Nd-Pb isotopic data to develop a model that can be applied to similar SNB intrusive suites. Stage 1 units, emplaced ca. 105 Ma, consist of two gabbros, a gabbrodiorite, and a granite. Stage 2 and stage 3 units were emplaced ca. 104 Ma and ca. 103 Ma, respectively, and are granites. We suggest that stage 1 gabbroids were derived by partial melting of lithospheric mantle, whereas coeval felsic magmas were derived by partial melting of a mafic, juvenile crustal source. Stage 2 and stage 3 granitoids were derived from similar sources that generated stage 1 granitoids, but there was greater input from evolved crust. Fractionation and/or assimilation played only a minor role in system evolution. Past studies of SNB magmas have come to conflicting conclusions about the petrogenesis of intermediate magmas that dominate the batholith; we hypothesize that mafic and felsic end members of the AMC could represent end members in mixing processes that generate these magmas. The timing of emplacement of the AMC coincides with a transition of magmatic style in the SNB, from smaller volume magmatic suites with mixed mantle and crustal sources to larger volume magmatic suites derived from greater proportions of crust.