Magmatic interaction in the Crystal Range suite, northern Sierra Nevada batholith, California

Abstract

The approximately 225-km2 Desolation study area lies at the northern end of the Sierra Nevada batholith, southwest of Lake Tahoe. The area is underlain by early- to middle-Jurassic metasedimentary and metavolcanic rocks of the Mount Tallac pendant, a group of middle-Jurassic plutonic rocks, and several Cretaceous plutons. Extensive glaciated exposures and a diversity of igneous lithologies ranging from leucogranite to anorthosite ideally suit the area for geologic and remote sensing studies.