Buena Vista Crest intrusive suite
Buena Vista Crest intrusive suite
late Early Cretaceous, ~100-112 Ma
Occurs in eastern Yosemite Valley and adjacent areas in central Sierra Nevada. Chiefly tonalite, granodiorite, and granite, and quartz diorite dikes. This unit has zircon U-Pb ages of 100 Ma and 112 Ma (Stern and others, 1981). Major plutons: quartz diorite dikes in El Capitan, granodiorites of Illilouette Creek and Tamarack Creek, tonalite of Crane Creek, Leaning Tower Granite, granodiorite of Ostrander Lake, granodiorite of Breeze Lake, Bridalveil Granodiorite and granodiorite of Horse Ridge, granite of Chilnualna Lake, and sparse quartz diorite dikes in El Capitan Granite of Yosemite intrusive suite. Locally intrudes older parts of the Yosemite intrusive suite (unit Gyo). May be an older phase of the ~93-100 Ma Merced Peak and Washburn Lake intrusive suites (unit Gmw). Unit magmatically linked to Cretaceous metavolcanic, meta-shallow intrusive and metagranitic rocks in the central Sierra Nevada (units SHKOV and SHKOG), forming part of the Monarch arc.