Shawn Robison Geol 380 5/14/12

Abstract In this study we mapped the contacts between the rock units that made up the area of big rock creek and located the faults and folds of the area. This took place in the San Gabriel Mountains 8 miles east of Mt. high in the area of the Punch Bowl Park and Old Point Comfort. The Tfs is made up of dark colored fine grain flaky shale inter mixed with sandstone layers. The division between Tfs and Tps is clearly seen in the abrupt change in rock type. Tps is made up of a Corse grain sandstone intermixed with layers of both small and large conglomerate layers. (JI) was found in sections of the Tfs both in the northern section of the mapping area and sections of the southern area. This is designated by the appearance of igneous rocks protruding up through the surface. The findings lead us to believe there was a massive plate collision shown by the crinkling of the mountains that can be seen in the rock layers of Tfs that show and accordion type appearance that was from the subduction fault. The boundary between the (Tfs) San Francisquito formation and (Tps) Punch bowl formation on the southern end of the mapping area is made up of the (ps) Pelona Shist. The PS over laying the Tps is the accreasionary wedge that has been uplifted due to a thrust fault and was secreted from the ocean floor up onto the surface over the continental crust between these two units, making PS millions to billions of years older than the rock units surrounding it. The (Tfs) is made up primarily of sandstone layers intermixed with shale in the upper unit and sandstone layers intermixed with conglomerate in the lower sections. The (Tps) is predominately non marine coarse-grained sediments of about 4,000 feet thick and are folded into an asymmetric west plunging syncline (Woodburne, 1971). The largest fault found was on the eastern side of the mapping area when an old subduction fault was located. This was determined by the fault gouge present which designates the barrier between the Pelona

Shawn Robison Geol 380 5/14/12

schist and Tps (Tertiary punch bowl). The subduction fault runs from the south eastern section of the mapping area viewable from the river basin up over the first mountain at a relief of 500 feet down the back side into the valley. There is evidence of metamorphic rock in the float at the base of the mountains near the fault and fault gouge made up of fine grain white powder and chlorite and green schist which is from the ps. Introduction The purpose of this paper and expedition was to learn the mapping process and describe rock units in the surrounding area of the San Gabriel mountains, specifically the Old Point Comfort area. This area is located in the northern Angeles Nation Forest in San Bernardino, California. The map area is approx 2.5 km by 2km and the primary rock units in this area are Lapiolli shale and greywacke sandstone. For the (Tps) region the rock units are sandstone, coarse grain, and rounded, intermixed with conglomerate. Thin, flakey, layered dark colored lapolli shale and grey wacky sandstone makes up most of the Tfs formation. The Palona Schist formation that was accreted up from the sea bottom at the subduction fault during the time these mountains were formed. The Ps was pushed up on top of the Tps and includes fault gorge made up of white fine grain powdered and some green chlorite. Metamorphic rocks such as muscovite schist and green schist make up the predominate rock in this area and are found in the river channels at the base of the mountain where the fault is located. Map Unit Descriptions: The oldest rock unit is the Palona Schist (PS), which is formed on the bottom of the ocean during the Protozoic Period. It was accreted at the thrust fault and lifted up onto the Continental Crust,

Shawn Robison Geol 380 5/14/12

and is now the contact between the thrust fault and Tps on one side and the Tfs on the other. This is found on the southern section of the map area just off the Pacific trail. The Pelona Schist makes up the San Gabriel Mountains and continues from here all the way west to Malibu, on the coast of California. The green-gray shiny almost a compact laminated type rock is the Green Schist. The shisto texture- shiny-platy, metamorphic rocks that have green minerals that make up the green schist facieses chlorite and altmolite give it the green color and the white/ yellow white minerals that are blocky are Albitie and Plagioclase. If not green then the schist is composed of muscovite which is formed from shale and becomes tan/brown, rust color, marbled with shiny fractures. The parent rock of the green schist is Protolite a basalt protolith that recrystalizes when it goes through the metamorphic process. Within this area where the ps is found is fault gouge a white rock with fine grain powder, and some green coloring caused by the chlorite. The next oldest rock unit is Jurassic Pluton (Ji) dating from the Jurassic Period that is found on top of the Tfs. An intrusive igneous rock that is located in the areas of the Tfs, was probably intruded up during the times of volcanic activity due to the subduction fault being where it is.

The San Francisquito is divided into two sections the lower San Francisquito and the upper Francisquito. The age range of the lower formation is from the Cretaceous (~65-145 MY), while the upper formation is from the middle Paleocene (~ 55.5-65.5 MY)(Crowell, 1982). The KT boundary can be found within this formation. The two stratigraphic sections, the upper unit and the lower unit are very different from each other - showing a distinct change in depositional

Shawn Robison Geol 380 5/14/12

environment. The lower San Francisquito formation was a non-marine alluvial deposit. The layers are made of sandstone, conglomerate, and siltstone layers with organic material within it. The bottom most layers are thin (about 25 cm thick) multi stripped color layers of flaky, alternating sandstone and mud/siltstone layers that are tan with dark black strips of organic material which shows a depositional environment of low energy stagnant water, and patches of red oxidized iron. Above the bedded sedimentary rock unit is an abrupt change into a conglomerate ~2cm round cobble tightly packed together and slightly unsorted, that expresses reddening due to oxidation. The reason for the change from sandstone to shale is the sudden rise in sea level over an approximately ten million year period. This first conglomerate layer is about 7 meters thick. This oxidation is only found on the bottom three meters of this layer. The clasts in this conglomerate layer are sub angular and are reverse graded. The bottom-most clasts are pebble to gravel sized, and increase to cobble sized clasts above. It is matrix supported. The clasts are mainly granitic igneous rocks and some gneiss. There is a layer of sandstone on top of the conglomerate which is also oxidized along cracks and fissures. On top of the sandstone there is another layer of conglomerate. This pattern of repeating sandstone and conglomerate layers continues for another 10 meters. This layer is dipping to the south at an angle of 45 to 50 degrees. The upper section of the San Francisquito is marine greywacke sandstone and shale laminate deposits. The greywacke is grey in color with specks of orange and has iron oxidation with feldspar which creates a yellow tint. Sulfur is also present. The greywacke most likely came from a marine shelf environment (Kooser, 1982). It is poorly sorted and medium to coarse grained. These layers of greywacke and shale layers alternate and the shale layers are thicker than the greywacke layers. The dip for the upper section changes depending where it was measured. The southern end dips at a more gentile angle while the northern end dips close to

Shawn Robison Geol 380 5/14/12

vertical. The main difference between the upper and lower is the amount of conglomerate present in the upper. The upper unit also had a shift in dip, the north being steeper and the south becoming shallower. The lower formation is suggested to be ancient channels from rivers thought to be 50 to 60 million years old. The lower sections can be seen in the north section of the map, just south of the road. At the base of the lower unit is a stripped, colored layer of flakey sandstone, tanned with dark black strips of coal, and patches of red oxidized iron. This dispositional environment was low energy, stagnate non-marine sediment with vegetation ... layers of sandstone and mudstone are an intermixed underlying conglomerate. Sedimentary bedded, fine grain and coarse grain sandstone are also found in this area. Above the sedimentary rock layers are an abrupt change to conglomerate 2 cm rounded cobble tightly packed together, slightly unsorted, slight oxidation, but mostly tan in color, and the boulders get larger as the unit goes up. To the south, because of the dip of the unit, the layers get younger in age. There is a continuous transition in layers for fine grain sandstone, tan and orange with streaks of oxidized iron and large clast matrix supported conglomerate. The Punchbowl Formation (Tps) is divided into two members, and ranges in age from approximately 13.6 million years Clarendonian age to ~4.9 million years Henphillian age this age has been determined due to mammalian fossils (Woodburne, 1971). The depositional environment of the Punchbowl formation is a non-marine environment. This area was formed in

Shawn Robison Geol 380 5/14/12

a high energy setting seen by the poorly sorted clasts and it is mainly matrix supported by coarse grain sandstone. The clasts are sub angular to sub rounded pebbles, cobbles and boulders up to 2 feet thick. The arkosic conglomerate and conglomerate sandstone that makes up this formation is mainly tan in color with a few inter mixed layers of dark green/gray mud layers. The lower Tps begins with a reddish-purple sandstone unconformably overlying San Francisquito, and continues with 330m thick light grey arkosic, interbedded course grained conglomerate and finegrained sandstone. Conglomerate layers contain boulders up to .5m diameter, as well as reworked clasts from the underlying San Francisquito Formation. The punchbowl formations thickness is approximately 4,000 feet and folded into an asymmetric west plunging syncline which is subdivided by two members; the upper and lower member. The thickness of the upper member is approximately 3,000 feet and the thickness of the lower member is approximately 1,000 feet (Woodburne, 1971).

Shawn Robison Geol 380 5/14/12 References

Kooser, Marilyn 1982, Stratigraphy and Sedimentology of the Type San Formation, Southen California. Dept. of earth science Univ of Ca Riverside Jacobson, Carl E., 1983 Structural geology of the Pelona Schist and Vincent thrust, San Gabriel Mountains, Ca GSA Woodburne, Michael O., Late Tertiary Non marine Rocks, Devils Punchbowl and Cajon Valley southern CA Univ. of Ca Riverside