Discussion Topic |
|
This thread has been locked |
Minerals
Social climber
The Deli
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Dec 31, 2009 - 01:36am PT
|
OK, back to Yosemite stuff…
Tradster, did you find a copy of the Tioga Pass Caldera paper online? GSA member? I have a photocopy, but it’s in my geo files, which are all in storage. The Third Pillar is composed of the quartz monzonite of Ellery Lake, and there are a few different types of plutonic rock in Lee Vining Canyon.
Allen Glazner (Yosemite documentary) and others at the University of North Carolina have put together a really cool map resource for the central Sierra Nevada – check it out!
http://geomaps.geosci.unc.edu/quads/quads.htm
The Mono Craters quad covers the Lee Vining Canyon area – check it out!
WARNING: Large file size! (5.82 MB)
http://geomaps.geosci.unc.edu/quads/fulls/Mono%20Craters.jpg
The main granitic rock types in Lee Vining Canyon are as follows:
Quartz monzonite of Ellery Lake (98??? Ma)
Wheeler Crest quartz monzonite (? Ma)
Granodiorite of Mono Dome (168 Ma)
Quartz monzonite of Lee Vining Canyon (210-220 Ma)
The names of these rock types are from Kistler’s 1966 Mono Craters quad (older granitic classification scheme). The current granitic rock classification scheme would probably characterize the quartz monzonites as regular granite.
For an overview of granitic rock types and their current classification scheme, check out this older ST thread about granite:
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=731799&msg=732325#msg732325
I can’t remember the exact age of the quartz monzonite of Ellery Lake (no references in front of me…), but seem to recall something like 98 Ma. I don’t know the age of the Wheeler Crest quartz monzonite but am sure of the 168 Ma age on the granodiorite of Mono Dome. I remember a published age for the quartz monzonite of Lee Vining Canyon of 210 Ma, but my professor thinks that it’s more like 220 Ma, and related to the 222 Ma ash-flow tuff of Saddlebag Lake (roughly the intrusive equivalent).
The following photos show the different granitic rock types in Lee Vining Canyon:
3P = Third Pillar of Mt. Dana/Dana Plateau
gu = undifferentiated granitic rocks
EL = Quartz monzonite of Ellery Lake
WC = Wheeler Crest quartz monzonite
MD = Granodiorite of Mono Dome
LVC = Quartz monzonite of Lee Vining Canyon
See Mono Craters quad map (link above) for more details and to compare with photos.
View looking up Lee Vining Canyon from highway 120
View from upper Lee Vining Canyon; notice highway 120 road-grade along “Blue Slide”
Closer view of area in above photo
Quartz monzonite of Ellery Lake; notice the abundance of closely-spaced joints – this ain’t no El Cap…
Quartz monzonite of Ellery Lake
As far as the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite goes… Ummmm… I’ve wanted to start a thread on my favorite subject for over a year now, but haven’t gotten to it yet. I’ve got a ton of photos. So, what do you guys think? Geology here and TIS-specific stuff in a new thread? But, like Cleo said, just don’t expect anything too soon! :)
Side Note:
Since we are back to Yosemite stuff… I know that this has been posted before but figured that it would fit in well here… Cool stuff!
Elephant Rock rockfall:
http://geology.com/articles/yosemite-rockfall.shtml
Where's DMT?
|
|
Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
|
Dec 31, 2009 - 01:51am PT
|
OK, OK - you can post stuff about the Tuolumne Intrusive Suite, though I think it should be on a separate thread. And first you have to tell us what a glaucophane is.
There are threads somewhere on the Elephant Rock, Ahwiyah Point and Currie Village rockfalls, and other momentous events. Probably fishing under Greg Stock will find them, as he usually adds to such threads.
|
|
cleo
Social climber
Berkeley, CA
|
|
|
Dec 31, 2009 - 10:24am PT
|
Rock Springs (and Evanston), Wyoming -
to answer Jaybro's question.
I didn't last too long, just a couple of years, which is about average for SLB out there. But there were parts of the job I really loved... driving big trucks, fresh snow piled up at dawn on the lee side of sagebrush, having 10 geologists crammed into my cab on a Wildcat well (actually, all those mud-loggers - poor guys - they were SO LONELY! They use to sit up all night and talk to me, I was probably the first non-roughneck they had talked to in a month. Didn't hurt that I was a chick either.)
|
|
hooblie
climber
from where the anecdotes roam
|
|
|
Dec 31, 2009 - 12:10pm PT
|
i loved my couple of years on a workover rig, as a derrick hand, doing completions out of rock springs. from echo canyon to muddy gap, pinedale to baggs, even flying into nw colo, landing off airport to get within an hour of wild four wheeling to the rig.
pretty awesome having such a remote location invaded at dawn by an army of roaring diesels pounding 10,00 throbbing lbs of pressure downhole to fracture the formation. then the call to break it all down, we were abandoned and left to tend a flare through the night.
i used to forego the trip to town to spend per diem on a motel. got a kick out of listening for the crew truck to cross a cattle guard seven miles away, at just the measured number of minutes after their departure from location. fourteen hours of bliss till the return of the surliest bunch of lowbrows you could ever want to get exhausted, greased up and aggro with. if it hadn't been so physically satisfying...
on one location at the head of a draw, where from the crow's nest
(ok, rod basket, but there's something about crossing wide open wyoming at sunrise that can bring out my inner mariner,)
the whole of the wind rivers was layed out to the east. i spotted an eagle working the intervening ridge.
when he turned our way for a sled ride down the ravine, i hollered to the floor.
WHAT?... CHECK OUT THE EAGLE!... WHAT...? the driller shut down the rig, just in time.
eagle coasts by at eye level, that whistling airfoil is the sound of my heart in wistful pursuit.
but latching pipe at breakneck speed seemed to have been the elixer that "kept my mind from wandering,"
and served as proper pennance for so exuberantly abusing my happy circumstance
positioned right at the pinnacle of the inevitably, oh so short, petroleum era.
|
|
tuolumne_tradster
Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
|
|
Once again, Muchas Gracias, for the info and the links, especially the annotated photos of LV Cyn area.
3rd pillar has always been a sort of mythical, sacred summit...a place where pagan rituals are carried out.
that last pitch is one of the finest anywhere in the High Sierras...especially that last move where you mantle on to the Dana
plateau...the Dana Plateau has a somewhat surrealistic quality to it...I think Minerals & Co should do another History Ch special on the origin of this mysterious geomorphic feature.
|
|
Minerals
Social climber
The Deli
|
|
|
Topic Author's Reply - Jan 2, 2010 - 02:51pm PT
|
Cool! Did any of you know that Saddlebag Lake, etc. used to drain down the west side of the Sierra before the normal faults took over? Kind of interesting to think about, especially if you’re not a geomorphologist!
|
|
tuolumne_tradster
Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
|
|
Didn't know that...~ 10-15 MYA? at the onset of Basin & Range faulting in the late Miocene?
|
|
tuolumne_tradster
Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
|
|
Cleo: just read your reply to Jaybro's question RE working for Schlumberger. It's commendable that you lasted 2 years as a logging engineer...that's definitely a burn out job. I remember being a well site geologist on logging jobs for offshore exploratory wells w/Schlumberger that lasted 4 days.
|
|
Phil_B
Social climber
Hercules, CA
|
|
|
Jan 13, 2010 - 12:01am PT
|
Just saw Cleo again on the History Channel!
Love reruns
|
|
Chaz
Trad climber
greater Boss Angeles area
|
|
|
Jan 23, 2010 - 01:09pm PT
|
Re-run Alert!, 11:00 am Pacific on DirecTV. (like about a hour from now)
I can't watch, I have things I need to do outside on the frist dry day in a week. Besides, I know how it ends.
|
|
cleo
Social climber
Berkeley, CA
|
|
|
Oct 28, 2011 - 11:14pm PT
|
Bump for Geology - I coulda sworn there was a Yosemite Geology minus history channel thread, but this one's pretty good!
I have arrived in Yosemite for the winter, and it is my solemn duty to get to know the park as well as possible. Especially the geology! And is is a travesty that I'd never hiked Mt. Dana before... so up I went, before the winter. What cool meta-volcanic rocks!!!
Check out the fracture pattern! Funny thing was, I was in the YV visitor center a couple days before and learning about how arrowheads were cut... very similar!
This too:
More interesting fractures, these speak of ancient earth stresses.
As do these!
Perfectly camouflaged - so much for safety orange while hiking alone:
|
|
cleo
Social climber
Berkeley, CA
|
|
|
Oct 29, 2011 - 12:04am PT
|
Such a pretty chosspile!
|
|
Klimmer
Mountain climber
San Diego
|
|
|
Oct 29, 2011 - 02:06am PT
|
I recently purchased from Costco . . .
HC -- How the Earth Was Made: The complete Season One (13 episodes)
and
HC -- How the Earth Was Made: The complete Season Two (13 episodes)
Haven't watched them all yet but looking forward to it.
Great value. Should be good for my Earth Science class at key moments in the curriculum.
|
|
tuolumne_tradster
Trad climber
Leading Edge of North American Plate
|
|
|
Oct 29, 2011 - 02:16am PT
|
Photos from the late 1870s failed Great Sierra (Silver) mine near upper Gaylor Lake, about 2 miles from the Tioga Pass entrance station. I believe these are Cretaceous and Triassic meta-sedimentary and meta-volcanic rocks.
Sheepherder quartz vein
Tuolumne Meadows Geologic Map
http://geomaps.geosci.unc.edu/quads/fulls/Tuolumne%20Meadows.jpg
|
|
Archie Richardson
Trad climber
Grand Junction, CO
|
|
Did everyone notice Steph Davis soloing the Diamond in the Rocky Mountains segment?
|
|
|
SuperTopo on the Web
|
Let us know!