September 26, 2022
A new paper in Geosphere authored by bureau geologist Snir Attia focuses on the relationship between deformation and magmatism in the rock record of a Cretaceous volcanic arc preserved in the central Sierra Nevada of eastern California. Using a new tectonic reconstruction and structural synthesis based on decades of mapping, field data, and structural observations as well as hundreds of zircon U-Pb rock ages, this paper paints a new picture that is significantly different than previously thought. Unlike previously proposed models of direct tectonomagmatic links, plutons and shear zones in the central Sierra Nevada show no particular relationship in space and time. As these previous models have become highly influential in studies of arcs and orogens across the world, this study has far-ranging implications for how lithospheric processes interact to shape the expression of tectonism and magmatism across many different systems and settings.
Spatiotemporally heterogeneous deformation, indirect tectonomagmatic links, and lithospheric evolution during orogenic activity coeval with an arc flare-up
— Snir Attia, Scott R. Paterson, Dazhi Jiang, and Robert B. Miller, Geosphere (2022), https://doi.org/10.1130/GES02478.1.