Week 6 - Geological interpretations - Klamath Mountains - Jacob Norenko

After reviewing California's geological map I decided I wanted to visit the Klamath Mountains because of the interesting spread of plutons.

There are these spread out plutons, such as the Russian, English, and Deadmans peak, that are all composed of Mesozoic granite, quartz monzonite, granodiorite, and quartz diorite.There are also from the Mesozoic period. What I find interesting is how all of these peak plutons are spread apart, and yet are composed of the same material and from the same era. How and why did these plutons become so spread apart while being from the same era? This question is important to me to help me understand the machinations that took place when the region was formed.

What the plutons sit in is a rock formation from the Paleozoic era. This rock was formed with shale which I can infer that this rock sat in water of some kind. That may have been an ocean lagoon or lake of some kind. Was the rest of the Mesozoic rock weathered away, or perhaps due to a thrust fault forced apart, allowing this formation to appear? I feel this information would give me an idea of the forces at hand that made it so that these plutons were so spread out since this rock is older than the spread out Mesozoic plutons.

The Shelly lake pluton that divides the area is from the Cenozoic period made up of metavolcanic rocks. From this I can infer that this strip of pluton was created due to a volcanic eruption. I can somewhat judge that the lava started in the north and flowed south by the shape of the formation. From that I want to know where this volcano originated and when it erupted? This information helps me to understand the geological history of the area and I may be able to infer other things about the rest of the region.


https://maps.conservation.ca.gov/cgs/gmc/