Duebendorfer E.M., Smith E.I. (eds.) Field Guide to Plutons, Volcanoes, Faults, Reefs, Dinosaurs, and Possible Glaciation in Selected Areas of Arizona, California, and Nevada

Geological Society of America, Inc. (GSA), 2008. — 270 p. — ISBN: 978-0-8137-0011-3.Spectacular geology in the Lake Mead area just west of Las Vegas. The River Mountains volcanic section (foreground in Nevada) and the Wilson Ridge pluton (on the skyline to the east in Arizona) represent a linked volcanic-plutonic system separated by the Saddle Island detachment fault. The mesa is Fortification Hill capped by 5.8 m.y. old basalt. This volume contains background information and road logs for eleven fi eld trips in Nevada, Arizona, and California. Southern Nevada and adjoining areas contain a rich geologic history spanning the interval from the Paleoproterozoic to the present. Las Vegas lies at or near several critical geological junctures and localities including the structural boundary between the Colorado Plateau and Basin and Range, the physiographic boundary between the Great Basin and the southern Basin and Range, the eastern margin of the Sevier foldand-thrust belt, the tectonically active Death Valley area, tilted and faulted volcanic-plutonic systems exposing the upper part of the crust, and the enigmatic amagmatic zone. Field trips in this volume span the geologic record from the Ediacaran (late Neoproterozoic) to the Holocene. Steve Rowland, Lynn Oliver, and Melissa Hicks will lead participants to three of the best examples of Ediacaran and Early Cambrian reefs in North America (Chapter 4). A trip led by John Warme, Jared Morrow, and Charles Sandberg (Chapter 10) examines the long-lived Devonian shallow-water carbonate platform and features a visit to the spectacular Alamo Impact Breccia. Middle Mississippian to late Permian tectonism as recorded by regional unconformities, folding, thrusting, and the stratigraphic record is the focus of a trip led by Pat Cashman, Jim Trexler, Walt Snyder, Vladimir Davydov, and Wanda Taylor (Chapter 2). Andy Barth, Lawford Anderson, Carl Jacobson, Scott Paterson, and Joe Wooden bring us into the Mesozoic with an overview of the tectonic evolution of a tilted section through the upper and middle crust of the Cretaceous Cordilleran arc (Chapter 5). Cretaceous sedimentary rocks deposited in the foredeep of the Sevier fold-and-thrust belt and their dinosaur fossils are the topic of a trip led by Joshua Bonde, David Varricchio, Frankie Jackson, David Loope, and Aubrey Shirk (Chapter 11). The Cenozoic is well represented by six different trips. Nick Lang, B.J. Walker, Lily Claiborne, Calvin F. Miller, Rick Hazlett, and Matt Heizler (Chapter 9) examine spectacular cross-section view of the Miocene Spirit Mountain batholith and a coeval, and possibly related, eruptive center (Secret Pass) in the Colorado River extensional corridor. Another volcano-plutonic complex, the River Mountains–Wilson Ridge igneous system, which was dismembered by the Saddle Island detachment fault is the destination of a trip led by Denise Honn and Gene Smith (Chapter 1). Jim Faulds, Keith Howard, and Ernie Duebendorfer examine synextensional basins that constrain the timing of the structural demarcation between the Colorado Plateau and the Basin and Range (Chapter 6). Jerry Osborn, Matthew Lachniet, and Nick Saines weigh the evidence for and against Pleistocene glaciation in the Spring Mountains of southern Nevada in Chapter
7. The cultural effects of some of the youngest volcanism in the continental United States outside the Cascades is the focus of a trip by Sarah Hanson, Wendell Duffi eld, and Jeffrey Plescia (Chapter 8) to the San Francisco volcanic fi eld near Flagstaff, Arizona. Finally, Kurt Frankel and a cast of thousands bring us up to date with a look at the active tectonics of the eastern California shear zone with discussions regarding signifi cant discrepancies between long-term slip rates and the current rate of strain accumulation along active faults (Chapter 3).