Tectonic implications of a petrographic and geochemical characterization of the Lower to Middle Jurassic Sailor Canyon Formation, northern Sierra Nevada, California

The Lower to Middle Jurassic Sailor Canyon Formation in the northern Sierra Nevada of California consists of basinal volcaniclastic and tuffaceous sed imentary rocks. Petrographic and geochemical data from the formation provid e an opportunity to assess a proposed similar to 400 km of pre-late Cretace ous dextral strike-slip displacement on the cryptic Mojave-Snow Lake fault, A corollary to the proposed displacement is that Triassic-Jurassic volcani c complexes exposed in eastern California were the source for Sailor Canyon Formation sediments. However, geochemical data derived from volcanic rocks from this area are unlike those of the volcanic provenance characterized f or the Sailor Canyon Formation. Comparisons of geochemical data suggest tha t contemporaneous volcanic centers exposed in western Nevada north of simil ar to 38 degreesN may be better candidates for the source of the volcanic m aterial in the Sailor Canyon Formation. This interpretation implies that de xtral strike-slip displacement on the Mojave-Snow Lake fault may be less th an similar to 200 km, a value that agrees with some interpretations of Meso zoic intrabatholithic displacements in the Sierra Nevada.