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Late-Quaternary Channel Migration In Red Rock Canyon State Park, California; Implications For Regional Tectonics, Kirk Forrest Townsend

Natural Resources Management and Environmental Sciences

The Iron Canyon Valley, located at the southern end of the eastern Sierra Nevada at the boundary between the Mojave and Basin and Range tectonic provinces, exhibits clear evidence, over graded timescales, of development through monoclinal shifting, which is the tendency of streams flowing parallel to strike over sedimentary rocks to shift down-dip. Although the character of the valley and bedrock dip indicates development through monoclinal shifting, the current stream network is located up-dip on the east side of the valley. Mapping the surficial geology of the valley revealed the presence of dissected alluvial surfaces approximately 85 meters above modern …