Geologic evolution of the Point San Pedro area: Insights from detrital thermochronology - Livestream

The Point San Pedro - Devil’s Slide area of the San Mateo coast preserves a rich 100 m.y. history of plate tectonic interactions that affected the California margin.  The coastal area is well-preserved, accessible, and a featured hike in GeolSci 5 - Living on the Edge. The ca. 105 Ma Montara Granite and overlying Paleocene strata are part of a crustal sliver (Salinia) that was displaced ca. 360 km northwestwards away from the southernmost, mid-Cretaceous Sierra Nevada batholith along the San Andreas transform during the Neogene.  Geologic relationships and new detrital K-feldspar thermochronology indicate that the Salinian rocks were strongly folded during Miocene tectonic burial to 2-3 km depth. This deformation resulted from overthrusting by rocks of the Cretaceous Franciscan subduction complex across the Pilarcitos fault, a presently inactive segment of the modern San Andreas fault system.

Speaker: Dr. Marty Grove, Stanford University