Lower Paleozoic metasedimentary rocks in the east-central Sierra Nevada, California: Correlation with Great Basin formations
Rock type, stratigraphic sequence, and associated fossils in metamorphic rocks exposed in roof pendants near Big Pine and Bishop, California, allow, for the first time, detailed correlation of Sierran metasedimentary rocks with Paleozoic formations in the Great Basin. The Big Pine pendant rocks are correlative with the Lower Cambrian Poleta Formation and represent shelf facies. Rocks of the eastern Bishop Creek pendant also represent predominantly shelf facies, and correlate with Ordovician and Silurian strata of the Inyo Range. These correlations place the early Paleozoic shelf margin west or northwest of the Bishop Creek pendant; they indicate that major structural features do not exist between the Sierra Nevada and the Great Basin at this latitude and substantiate the model that depicts these rocks as Cordilleran miogeoclinal strata.