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Published January 12, 1996 | Submitted
Journal Article Open

Origin of High Mountains in the Continents: The Southern Sierra Nevada

Abstract

Active and passive seismic experiments show that the southern Sierra, despite standing 1.8 to 2.8 kilometers above its surroundings, is underlain by crust of similar seismic thickness, about 30 to 40 kilometers. Thermobarometry of xenolith suites and magnetotelluric profiles indicate that the upper mantle is eclogitic to depths of 60 kilometers beneath the western and central parts of the range, but little subcrustal lithosphere is present beneath the eastern High Sierra and adjacent Basin and Range. These and other data imply the crust of both the High Sierra and Basin and Range thinned by a factor of 2 since 20 million years ago, at odds with purported late Cenozoic regional uplift of some 2 kilometers.

Additional Information

© 1996 American Association for the Advancement of Science. 30 August 1995; accepted 14 November 1995. Supported by the Continental Dynamics Program of the National Science Foundation (EAR-9120690 to S.P., EAR-9120688 to G.J., EAR-9119263 to P.M., and EAR-9120689 to R.P.), the Department of Energy (DE-FG03-93ER14311 to R.C.), the U.S. Navy (China Lake Naval Weapons Center), and the U.S. Air Force (Office of Scientific Research). Key logistical support was provided by the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Forest Service.

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August 20, 2023
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