Western Earth Surface Processes
The Black Mountain area is in the Mojave Desert about 20 km northeast of Victorville, California. The geology of this area is of interest primarily for its excellent exposures of the early Mesozoic Fairview Valley Formation, a sequence of weakly metamorphosed sedimentary rocks including a thick, commercially important unit of limestone conglomerate that has been mined for cement at Black Mountain Quarry for several decades. Recent geochronologic work has shown that the Fairview Valley Formation is probably of Early Jurassic age. This preliminary geologic map of the Black Mountain area depicts the stratigraphic and structural relations of the Fairview Valley Formation and the associated rocks, most notably the overlying Sidewinder Volcanics of Early(?), Middle, and Late(?) Jurassic age. The map is based on new field studies by the author designed to clarify details of the stratigraphy and structure unresolved by previous investigations. The map is considered preliminary because the ages of some geologic units critical for a satisfactory understanding of the stratigraphic and structural framework remain unknown.
The map area also includes a segment of the Helendale Fault, one of several faults of known or inferred late Cenozoic right-lateral displacement that make up the Eastern California Shear Zone. The fault is marked by aligned northeast-facing scarps in Pleistocene or older alluvial deposits and the underlying bedrock units. Relations in the map area suggest that right-lateral displacement on the Helendale Fault probably does not exceed 2 km, a conclusion compatible with previous estimates of displacement on this fault based on relations both within and outside the Black Mountain area.
Download this map as a ~34" x 34" PDF file (of2006-1347.pdf; 1.2 MB)
Download the readme file: bm-readme.txt (5 kB)
Download the metadata file: bm_met.txt (53 kB)
Download data package: bm.tar.gz (255 kB that expands to a 1.45 MB folder)
For questions about the content of this report, contact Paul Stone
Suggested citation and version history: (version_history.txt; 8 KB)
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Western Earth Surfaces Processes |
U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
URL: http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2006/1347/
Page Contact Information: Michael Diggles
Page Last Modified: July 10, 2007 (mfd)
