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aldude
climber
Monument Manor
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Topic Author's Original Post - Apr 28, 2008 - 05:17pm PT
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Geography question : Where does the Sierra end and the Cascades begin? Some say the Sierra Buttes (above) in Sierra county are the northern terminus of the Sierra Nevada - others assign the boundary in Plumas county near the North Fork of the Feather River ( Grizzly Dome ) on highway 70. The Buttes are metamorphic - Grizzly Dome - granitic. I'm goin with Plumas Co. Thoughts?
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Apr 28, 2008 - 05:25pm PT
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Wikipedia says the U.S. Sierra Nevada mountains (the original Sierra Nevada are in Spain) ends at Fredonyer Pass, which seems to be somewhere near Mount Lassen. (?) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Nevada_(U.S.);
The Cascade Range apparently goes from Mt. Shasta right through to the Fraser River, which somewhat surprises me - I'd somehow always thought that they were just in Washington and the south bit of B.C. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascade_Range
The Cascades are named for cascades on the Columbia River where it breaks through the range, although maybe they're now submerged behind dams.
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aldude
climber
Monument Manor
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 28, 2008 - 05:43pm PT
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Ok then - Lassen County it is.
Here's a pic of Grizzly Dome - Plumas County.
BTW - the most popular climbing area in the county ! ? !
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Spencer Adkisson
Trad climber
Reno, NV
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Apr 28, 2008 - 05:53pm PT
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Mighty Hi,
Wikipedia is not the most reliable source for information in the world. I do alot of rockhounding, and grew up in Chico, so those hills are my stomping grounds. I would call the Feather River the dividing line between the Sierra Nevada and the Cascade Range. The rock type is granitic with contact metamorphism on the south side of the river, and quickly changes into a characteristic volcanic landscape with Mt.Lassen and the ancestral remnants of Mt.Tehema dominating the landscape. Bald Rock Dome and Big Bald Rock lie somewhat South, Southeast of the area of the Feather that I am considering the "line" (Grizzly Dome Tunnel/Elephant Butte). But you can't really draw a line and say it's one thing here, and another thing over there, b ecause there is probably about twenty miles or more of transition zone where the two regions overlap and mix.
You are probably thinking of the North Cascades in Washington, but the Cascades run the entire length from the Feather River to the Frazier River.
Does that help?
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Apr 28, 2008 - 06:00pm PT
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I've driven up and down Interstate 5 many times, and the mountains seem awfully continuous to me - I'm not sure myself how or why they're divided into different ranges. There's a section from Mount Saint Helens to Mount Hood that isn't all that high, and other sections in southern Oregon and again south of Mount Shasta that are fairly low. So if the definition of a range is a contiguous group of mountains, more or less along a crest, it's not readily apparent why the entire distance from northern California to southern B.C. should be considered one range.
The dividing line between B.C.'s Coast Range and the Cascades is the Fraser River - but other large rivers divide the Coast Range. The range is still called the Coast Range, but those subdivisions sometimes have their own names, e.g. the Waddington Range.
Perhaps there's a geographer or geologist who could chime in and educate us about mountain nomenclature?
Yes, I'm well aware of the limitations of wikipedia, and the net generally, for reliable information.
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Spencer Adkisson
Trad climber
Reno, NV
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Apr 28, 2008 - 07:13pm PT
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Ding-o,
What is your take on the Sutter Buttes? (Besides being PRIME wild pig hunting grounds)
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rhyang
Ice climber
SJC
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Apr 28, 2008 - 07:13pm PT
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Lassen is also in the Cascades, according to the National Park Service :
"On May 22, 1915, an explosive eruption at Lassen Peak, the southernmost active volcano in the Cascade Range [...]"
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Spencer Adkisson
Trad climber
Reno, NV
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Apr 28, 2008 - 07:15pm PT
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Yes, definitely a Cascade Volcano.
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Apr 28, 2008 - 07:16pm PT
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I'd almost go with the Feather river dividing point, but the Sierra Buttes, always look cascade-ish to me.
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nita
climber
chica from chico, I don't claim to be a daisy
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Apr 28, 2008 - 07:41pm PT
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Nita's man, Andy, here (she asked that I chime in as I have a heavy burden of knowledge that I need to unload from time to time)
As a Chicoan for the last 20 something years and a natural history buff naked I can only tell you what I learned from a geologically fixated friend; #1 You can't judge a book by it's cover; translation; More recent geologic events may obscure the underlaying foundation of rock (ie. Mammoth).
#2 In Chico's case (as I am told) around Lake Almanor near the Hwy 89/36 jucnction the Sierran related granite takes a dive underground. The Keddie Mts nearby are the most above ground northern remnant.
#3 Feel free to prove me wrong. I can take it.
Andy ps Kleinfelter's airplane party in Bishop was a hoot!
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Apr 28, 2008 - 08:01pm PT
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If you wade into the water of Sardine lake and listen closely, you hear Jack Nicholson ordering Rye (wheat?) toast. Cascades, I say!
It don't all gotta be the same age/consistency. think of the Minarets.
-Maybe the Cascades are a subset of the S.Buttes?
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tom woods
Gym climber
Bishop, CA
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Apr 28, 2008 - 08:16pm PT
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How 'bout the Trinity Alps. I always heard that the granite there was the same pluton? as the sierra. The're pretty far north in California.
Tom
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Apr 28, 2008 - 08:22pm PT
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No doubt the creation "scientists" have an explanation for it all.
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Apr 28, 2008 - 08:24pm PT
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I always avoid orgiastic antlers...
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ontheedgeandscaredtodeath
Trad climber
San Francisco, Ca
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Apr 28, 2008 - 08:27pm PT
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Yeah, where do the alps and the marble mountains fit in? Are they outliers or part of one of the major ranges? The Marbles don't look the alps, cascades or sierra.
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Ed Bannister
Mountain climber
Riverside, CA
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Apr 28, 2008 - 08:28pm PT
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If you think of the sierra, as the uplifted batholith of that special recipie slow cooled granite we love, Andy, Nita's man, is correct.
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rhyang
Ice climber
SJC
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Apr 28, 2008 - 09:23pm PT
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The Trinity Alps and Marbles are part of the Klamaths.
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aldude
climber
Monument Manor
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 28, 2008 - 09:25pm PT
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" Cascade Buttes " ........hmmmm, doesn't sound rite.
Was skiing up there last week and lo & behold saw a vien of what I thought to be gold bearing quartz !! With the price of gold being what it is , I'll be up there with the bulldog and and some boulder-buster powder this summer. Maybe bag some more routes as well - BTW , any of yooze guys/gals ever climb there? I'm compiling a list of climbs in the area - please post up ***
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tom woods
Gym climber
Bishop, CA
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Apr 28, 2008 - 09:26pm PT
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The trinities are very different from the marbles, but in many places simalar to the sierra. Geography and Geology, I guess are two different forces working on our conversation.
Tom
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nature
climber
Santa Fe, NM
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Apr 28, 2008 - 09:53pm PT
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Lassen is part of the Cascade range.
I have a Friends of the Pleistocene field trip guide from about 10 years back where we went out and explored the Cascade/Sierra boundary. If I feel so inspired I might bust it out. Only problem is the damn thing is about 600 pages long. Trip Leader got GRILLED for the monster :-).
(not that I remember much from my Daze at Humboldt but I did do graduate work in Geology - Papajoto did as well and he confirms on Lassen).
Edit: Lassen is the southern extent of Cascadia extrusive volcanism. Around the Lake Almanor area any basalt north of there is Tertiary and part of the Cascade complex. Basalts south or there are Cenezoic (or older) and part of either the Sierra Nevada or are Sierra Nevada roof pendants (country rock that existed >40Ma [before intrusion]). If you run into granitic like rock (less than 10% of Sierra Nevada rock is a true Granite - mostly it's grano-diorite) you are in Sierra Nevada Terrane.
Double Edit: I can't believe I just pulled that sh#t out of my head. I studied dirt not igneous petrology. Some times mud sticks :-)
Triple Edit: If I recall correctly there is reason the Trinities are similar to the Sierra. They were once a part of the Sierra but right later sheering associated with onset of the San Andrea's transported them north. Crustal banding and intrusion of the Cascadia volcanics now sammich that terrane between the two (gotta knock out some cob webs on this one).
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Spencer Adkisson
Trad climber
Reno, NV
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Apr 28, 2008 - 11:59pm PT
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Not to be a pest, but if you look at the limestone that houses Shasta Caverns, and the fact that Castle Crags, and the Trinity Alps are different plutons, and the Marble Mountains and Eddys are uplifted sea floor, and there is a smaller, lesser-known limestone crag in the Shasta valley, and the fact that the Sutter Buttes came seemingly from nowhere, you have to look at it and say that the Earth is no more than 4,000 years old, and God created it all with one stroke of his celestial paintbrush. There, take that.
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nature
climber
Santa Fe, NM
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Apr 29, 2008 - 12:12am PT
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LoL! OK, I'm wrong.
7 days, yes?
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Spencer Adkisson
Trad climber
Reno, NV
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Apr 29, 2008 - 12:18am PT
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Halaleuja brother!
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Apr 29, 2008 - 01:45am PT
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Great stuff in this thread, Never even occurred to me to research the Geology of the Sierra butt's, Now the difference seems obvious.
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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California now Ireland
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Apr 29, 2008 - 09:03am PT
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Spencer, the Bible says about 6,000 years doesn't it? Or is that what the fundamentalists figure? I'm going for 10,000 years. It's a nice round figure.
Dingus, the Arboretum caused me to miss a number of classes at Columbia. At least that was my excuse. Great place to boulder - and smoke dope.
Lassen is definitely part of the Cascades. I've always wondered about the Trinity Alps and Castle Crags.
And we all know the origins of Mt Diablo - the Sleeping Giant.
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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California now Ireland
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Apr 29, 2008 - 10:13am PT
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Donny (Don nowadays I guess) Reid use to have this photograph taken (supposedly) from the summit of Mt Diablo. It looked straight across the Central Valley and into Yosemite Valley. You could see the top of El Cap and Half Dome. He didn't know where he got the photo.
I remembered when he showed it to me in Camp 4. It looked real cool, but we both thought that it might have been a doctored photo, as I grew up on Mt Diablo, so to speak, and have been on the summit numerous times, and I never saw the Valley, even with binoculars.
Anybody else?
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Spencer Adkisson
Trad climber
Reno, NV
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Apr 29, 2008 - 04:22pm PT
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P-Saw, I don't care what the Babble says. Fundamentalists, schumundamentalists, God personally told me that it was 4,000. I just talked to him. He's getting over a cold, but otherwise, doing well. He said I'm right. What are you anyway, some kind of blasphemer? Open your heart and you mind. Logic is a tool of the devil. =)
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Apr 29, 2008 - 05:01pm PT
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I have heard that you can discern yosemite on a clear day from on top of MT Diablo, I never have, but I have seen snow covered peaks.
It was closer in the old days...
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Joe Metz
Trad climber
Bay Area
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Apr 29, 2008 - 05:02pm PT
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Patrick, that photo was taken from the observatory at Mt. Hamilton. You can buy a copy of it at the observatory gift shop.
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Willoughby
Social climber
Truckee, CA
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Jun 28, 2017 - 11:16am PT
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I feel like geology (which I know very little about) is a surprisingly fast-moving field. Any updated thinking here?
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NutAgain!
Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
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Jun 28, 2017 - 11:53am PT
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Nice bump!
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clode
Trad climber
portland, or
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Jun 28, 2017 - 11:55am PT
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As a Registered Oregon Geologist, with a BS in Geology from U. of O, and a MS in Earth Sciences from PSU, I can say that DMT has it pretty well dialed in.
I took my Field Geology course in S. Oregon and N. Cal., in the Klamath/Siskiyous. In that area is the WTRPZ (Western Triassic and Paleozoic Belt). This is a rather anomalous chunk of "exotic" terrain, rafted in on tectonic plates from Wrangellia, that area from western British Columbia hosting the Wrangell Mountains. This old complex of rocks contains numerous rock types, abruptly juxtaposed against each other as components of imbricated reverse thrust blocks. DMT's analogy of "shingles" on a steep roof is a good one.
Mt. Lassen marks the approximate southern boundary of the Cascade Range, which has its northern terminus in northern Washington/Southern British Columbia.
Oh, and my bible said it took 6,000 years for all of this to happen!
Any questions?
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splitclimber
climber
Sonoma County
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Jun 28, 2017 - 04:08pm PT
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what I remember reading or learning is that, from a vegetation mapping perspective, Lassen "area" is the transition between the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges and contains a mix of species commonly associated with each range. Although Lassen Peak is definitely part of the cascades.
Geologically speaking - don't know but would support DMT's analysis.
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