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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 Oxygen isotope ratios of garnet provide well-established means to investigate crustal fluid histories. Traditionally, δ18O values from skarn garnets have been used to track the hydrothermal evolution of an individual skarn body through time. We, however, use garnet from 14 skarns from the Jurassic (ca. 175 to ca. 148 Ma) Cordilleran margin arc (southwestern United States) to provide regional tectonic context to arc magmatism and hydrothermal activity. We document arc-wide garnet δ18O variability of ~19‰ (−8.9‰ to +10.3‰, n = 159), providing a record of contrasting meteoric fluid ingress between northern (Sierra Nevada) and southern (Mojave Desert) arc segments. Strongly negative garnet δ18O values (≤−3‰) are limited to the Mojave Desert arc segment and can only form in the presence of meteoric fluid, requiring shallow formation in subaerial crust. When combined with U-Pb garnet ages, the δ18O data provide a minimum radiometric age of local subaerial arc emergence and temporal constraint on the migration of the Jurassic paleoshoreline in the Mojave Desert section of the arc. 

Garnet U‐Pb dating by laser ablation‐inductively coupled plasma‐mass spectrometry requires the development of matrix‐matched reference materials of variable chemistry and U mass fraction for accurate analysis. Additional calibration of existing primary reference materials is also justified based on the relatively poor calibration of some of the widely available primary reference materials that are currently utilised by the geoscience community. We present a micro sampling workflow combined with a refined ID‐TIMS methodology for the generation of high precision (~ 0.1%) U‐Pb dates from domains within garnet single crystals. Using this workflow, we calibrated two new natural andradite reference materials, the Jumbo andradite (And₉₉; 110.34 ± 0.03 (0.04) [0.13] Ma,n= 7, MSWD = 1.21) and the Tiptop andradite (And₈₇; 209.57 ± 0.11 (0.13) [0.26] Ma,n= 6, MSWD = 1.39). We also present additional calibration of the widely utilised Willsboro‐Lewis andradite primary reference material (And₉₀; 1024.7 ± 9.5 (9.6) [9.6] Ma (2s; overdispersed),n= 6). Wafers of the Jumbo and Tiptop andradite reference materials are available from the authors upon request. 

Ongoing investigations of halogen element (F, Cl, Br, I) concentrations in rocks and minerals in the Cretaceous Sierra Nevada Batholith, CA, aim to elucidate the spatio-temporal distribution and budget of these important elements in a “typical” continental convergent margin arc. Using a 3.0 kW Axios (Panalytical) wavelength-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (XRF) equipped with a Ge 111 crystal to eliminate second order interferences on Cl-Kα lines, the Pomona College XRF lab has undertaken a campaign-style study of Cl in pressed powder samples of metamorphic and metavolcanic rocks in the Sierra. This work complements pyrohydrolysis + ion chromatography (IC) and ICP-MS analyses the research team is undertaking at the University of Texas – Austin. Both labs quadruply wash powders to eliminate Cl contributions from decrepitated fluid inclusions or grain boundary deposits. Intercomparison between the two labs show correlation (r2 = 0.98) between analyses of the same unknown samples, but decreased accuracy of XRF (>30% relative) below 30 µg/g. Despite lower precision, XRF characterization is a relatively rapid and less labor intensive means to identify key Cl variations among rock types and to select samples for full analysis of all four halogen elements by pyrohydrolysis + IC (Cl,F) and ICP-MS (Br,I). Results thus far indicate that Mg- to Al-rich pelites ranging in metamorphic grade from phyllite to migmatite vary widely in Cl: 50–500 µg/g; cordierite-biotite hornfels are typically elevated in Cl (200–400 µg/g) and other lithologies such as skarns and amphibolite are highly varied (50–600 µg/g Cl); a localized study of a high temperature (650–750°C) migmatites surrounding a gabbro-diorite complex shows low and relatively uniform Cl (100 ± 50 µg/g) in the migmatites. This fundings suggests that Cl may have been mobilized into melts during biotite dehydration melting in the migmatites. Metavolcanic rocks vary from 20 to over 2000 µg/g Cl, suggesting post-eruptive exchange with exogenous fluids during hydrothermal alteration and metamorphism. Metavolcanic packages in different pendants, screens and septa show some localized patterns in Cl concentration that are being explored further. 

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) 

Metamorphic decarbonation in magmatic arcs remains a challenge to impose in models of the geologic carbon cycle. Crustal reservoirs and metamorphic fluxes of carbon vary with depth in the crust, rock types and their stratigraphic succession, and through geologic time. When byproducts of metamorphic decarbonation (e.g., skarns) are exposed at Earth’s surface, they reveal a record of reactive transport of carbon dioxide (CO2). In this paper, we discuss the different modes of metamorphic decarbonation at multiple spatial and temporal scales and exemplify them through roof pendants of the Sierra Nevada batholith. We emphasize the utility of analogue models for metamorphic decarbonation to generate a range of decarbonation fluxes throughout the Cretaceous. Our model predicts that metamorphic CO2 fluxes from continental arcs during the Cretaceous were at least 2 times greater than the present cumulative CO2 flux from volcanoes, agreeing with previous estimates and further suggesting that metamorphic decarbonation was a principal driver of the Cretaceous hothouse climate. We lastly argue that our modeling framework can be used to quantify decarbonation fluxes throughout the Phanerozoic and thereby refine Earth systems models for paleoclimate reconstruction.