Geology of the Le Brun and Mint Canyon Quadrangles, California

Author: Scherb, Ivan Victor

Year: 1935

Degree: Bachelor's thesis

Advisor: Maxson, John H.

Committee Member: None, None

Option: Geology

DOI: 10.7907/RC5N-4B66

Abstract

The Le Brun and Mint Canyon Quadrangles comprise an area of approximately fifty-two square miles. The northern part of the Le Brun Quadrangle is made up of three fundamental geologic units. Steeply dipping Tertiary sediments form a wedge, which narrows eastward, between an igneous complex to the north and a metamorphic series to the south. Three rock units are all bounded by steep, northerly dipping faults. The faulting is post-Oligocene and pre-Pleistocene in age. Everywhere the faults are truncated by an old land surface which is several stages removed from some of the more progressive land forms of the present cycle. The southern part of the Le Brun Quadrangle is composed largely of the metamorphic series which forms Sierra Pelona Ridge.

In the northern part of the Mint Canyon Quadrangle, the sedimentary wedge is terminated by a series of intersecting faults which persist to the eastern edge of the area and continue into the San Andreas Rift, several miles east of the boundary of the Mint Canyon Quadrangle. The central portion of the Mint Canyon Quadrangle is formed by the metamorphic series and is expressed topographically by Sierra Pelona Ridge. In the southern part of this quadrangle, an intricate system of faulted igneous and sedimentary beds are exposed. Easterly, this fault system disappears.

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