U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

Professional Paper 1783

Cenozoic Tectonic Reorganizations of the Death Valley 

Region, Southeast California and Southwest Nevada
COVER. View of Bat Mountain from the north (photograph by Ren A. Thompson).
Cenozoic Tectonic Reorganizations of the 

Death Valley Region, Southeast California 

and Southwest Nevada

By Christopher J. Fridrich and Ren A. Thompson

Professional Paper 1783

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey
U.S. Department of the Interior

KEN SALAZAR, Secretary

U.S. Geological Survey

Marcia K. McNutt, Director

U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, Virginia: 2011

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Suggested citation: 

Fridrich, C.J., and Thompson, R.A., 2011, Cenozoic tectonic reorganizations of the Death Valley region, southeast 

California and southwest Nevada: U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1783, 36 p. and 1 plate.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Fridrich, C. J. (Christopher J.)

Cenozoic tectonic reorganizations of the Death Valley Region, southeast California and southwest Nevada / by 

Christopher J. Fridrich and Ren A. Thompson.

p. cm. -- (Professional paper / U.S. Geological Survey ; 1783)

 Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-4113-3267-6 (pbk.)

1. Morphotectonics--Death Valley Region (Calif. and Nev.) 2. Paleoseismology--Death Valley Region (Calif. and Nev.) 

3. Paleoseismology--Cenozoic. 4. Death Valley Region (Calif. and Nev.) I. Thompson, Ren A. II. Geological Survey 

(U.S.) III. Title.

 QE511.44.F75 2011

 551.7’80979487--dc23

 2011041261
iii

Contents

Abstract...........................................................................................................................................................1

Introduction.....................................................................................................................................................1

Death Valley Region and Its Boundaries ...................................................................................................4

Strike-Slip Offsets within the Death Valley Region ..................................................................................4

Cenozoic Stratigraphy and Structure.........................................................................................................8

Pre-Basin-Range Sequence ...............................................................................................................8

Titus Canyon Assemblage ...................................................................................................................9

≈19 to ≈16 Ma Lacuna ........................................................................................................................12

Hells Gate Assemblage of the Hells Gate-Owlshead Tectonic Stage........................................12

Syn-Basin and Range Sequence .....................................................................................................14

Owlshead Assemblage of the Hells Gate-Owlshead Tectonic Stage........................................16

The ≈12.5 to ≈11.5 Ma Tectonic Reorganization.............................................................................17

Navadu Assemblage and Tectonic Stage.......................................................................................17

The ≈6.5 Ma Tectonic Reorganization..............................................................................................20

Furnace Creek Assemblage and Tectonic Stage ..........................................................................20

The ≈4.5 to ≈3 Ma Tectonic Reorganization...................................................................................23

Badwater Assemblage and Tectonic Stage...................................................................................23

Post-Basin-Range Sequence ...........................................................................................................26

Discussions...................................................................................................................................................26

Acknowledgments.......................................................................................................................................30

References Cited..........................................................................................................................................31

Figures

1. Death Valley region in relation to the tectonic provinces of the western United States 

and to the well-documented metamorphic core complexes, modified from Wust, 

(1986) ...............................................................................................................................................2

2. Physiographic map of the Death Valley region, showing the Sierra Nevada at the 

western boundary, the Mojave region to the south across the Garlock fault, the

Northern Basin and Range block to the northeast across the Las Vegas Valley 

shear zone (LVVSZ), the outline of the central Death Valley rhombochasm (CDVR), 

the Resting Spring Range (RSR), the Kingston Range (KR), and the Shadow Valley 

Basin (SVB).....................................................................................................................................3

3. Tectonic map of the Death Valley region showing the major strike-slip faults 

and the tectonically denuded area of the central Death Valley rhombochasm 

(CDVR), along with major piercing points that are offset across these structures...........5

4. East-west and chronologic schematic diagram depicting the Cenozoic 

stratigraphy of the Death Valley region, showing the seven tectono-stratigraphic 

assemblages..................................................................................................................................9

5. Present-day distribution of the ≥40-to-≈19-Ma Titus Canyon assemblage, 

showing post-depositional boundaries (internal and external) resulting from 

offsets across the northern Death Valley fault (NDVF) and the Stateline fault 

system (SF)—offsets which occurred primarily after ≈12 Ma............................................10
iv

6. Present-day distributions of the largely coeval pre-basin-range Hells Gate 

assemblage and syn-basin-range Owlshead assemblage, along with the 

major faults known to be active during the Hells Gate-Owlshead tectonic 

stage .............................................................................................................................................13

7. Structural pattern of the Hells Gate-Owlshead tectonic stage palinspastically 

restored to correct for post-≈12-Ma extension, and for strike-slip offsets across 

the southern Death Valley fault (SDVF), Sheephead fault (SHF), northern Death 

Valley fault (NDVF), and Stateline fault system (SF) .............................................................15

8. Present-day distribution of the ≈12-to-≈7-Ma syn-basin-range Navadu 

assemblage, and the major faults known to be active during the Navadu 

tectonic stage..............................................................................................................................18

9. Present-day distribution of the ≈7-to-≈3.5-Ma syn-basin-range Furnace 

Creek assemblage, the major faults known to be active, and the distribution and 

compositions of volcanic rocks erupted in the Furnace Creek stage ...............................22

10. Present-day distribution of the ≈3.5 Ma-to-present syn-basin-range 

Badwater assemblage, the major faults known to be active, and the 

distribution and compositions of volcanic rocks erupted in the Badwater 

stage .............................................................................................................................................24

11. Distribution of the post-basin-range sequence of the Death Valley region, 

and the estimated ages (Ma) of the strata at the base of this sequence, 

showing the westward younging of the base age................................................................27

Plate

1. Representative Cenozoic stratigraphic columns from 12 locales in the Death Valley region.
v

Conversion Factors

SI to Inch

Multiply By To obtain

centimeter (cm) 0.3937 inch (in.)

millimeter (mm) 0.03937 inch (in.)

meter (m) 3.281 foot (ft) 

kilometer (km) 0.6214 mile (mi)

 

square kilometer (km2) 0.3861 square mile (mi2)

Temperature in degrees Celsius (°C) may be converted to degrees Fahrenheit (°F) as follows:

°F=(1.8×°C)+32

Temperature in degrees Fahrenheit (°F) may be converted to degrees Celsius (°C) as follows:

°C=(°F-32)/1.8

Vertical coordinate information is referenced to the insert datum name (and abbreviation) here, 

for instance, “North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88)”

Horizontal coordinate information is referenced to the insert datum name (and abbreviation) 

here, for instance, “North American Datum of 1983 (NAD 83)”

Altitude, as used in this report, refers to distance above the vertical datum
vi

Acronyms and Abbreviations

40Ar/39Ar 40Argon/39Argon (dating)

BB Badwater Basin

BU Black Butte

BM Billie Mine

CAV California Basin

CBH Central Bullfrog Hills

CC Copper Canyon

CDVR Central Death Valley rhombochasm

CFB Crater Flat Basin

CM Cottonwood Mountains

cm/yr centimeters per year

CVB Chicago Valley Basin

CT Cleary Thrust 

DSB Deep Springs Basin

EB Eureka Valley Basin

EDF Emigrant detachment fault

FBD Fluorspar Canyon-Bullfrog Hills detachment fault

FCB Furnace Creek Basin (half-graben)

FMD Funeral Mountains detachment fault

HIW Hole in the Wall (site)

GHG Grand View half-graben

GVF Grand View fault

Ga Billion years old

GM Grapevine Mountains

HD Harrisburg detachment fault

HH Holloran Hills

IWV Indian Wells Valley

K-Ar Potassium-Argon (dating)

KB Kingston Basin

KR Kingston range

KFH Kit Fox Hills

km kilometer

KPT Kwichup Peak Thrust
vii

KRD Kingston Range detachment fault

LCR Last Chance Range

LVVSZ Las Vegas Valley shear zone m meter 

Ma million years old

MCB Military Canyon Basin

MP Mormon Point

MR Mushroom Rock (site)

NAD northern segment of Amargosa detachment fault

NB Nova Basin

NDVF Northern Death Valley-Furnace Creek fault

NVB Navadu Basin

OHD Opera House detachment fault

OV Owens Valley

OM Owlshead Mountains

PB Pahrump Basin

PRD Point of Rocks detachment fault

PVF Panamint Valley fault

RCF Raven Canyon fault

RS Rodgers Spring

RSR Resting Spring Range

RV Rock Valley

RVF Rock Valley fault

SAB Saline Valley Basin

SAD Southern segment of Amargosa detachment fault

SB Searles Valley Basin

SCD Scottys Castle detachment fault

SDVF Southern Death Valley fault

SDVB Southern Death Valley Basin

SEB Saline-Eureka Valleys area

SF Stateline fault

SHF Sheephead fault

SHGB granite breccia at Sperry Hills

SIB Silurian Valley Basin

SNVF Southwest Nevada volcanic field
viii

SPT Schwaub Peak Thrust 

SR Specter Range Thrust 

SS Salt Spring anticline

SV Stewart Valley

SVB Shadow Valley Basin

TCFS Titus Canyon fault system

TLB Tecopa Lake beds

TSS Texas Spring syncline

USGS U.S. Geological Survey

U-Th/He Uranium-Thorium/Helium (dating)

VC Virgin Canyon

WWF Wingate Wash fault

Symbols

° degrees

 ́ minutes

≈ approximately

≥ greater than or equal to

≤ less than or equal to
Abstract

The Death Valley region, of southeast California and 

southwest Nevada, is distinct relative to adjacent regions in its 

structural style and resulting topography, as well as in the timing 

of basin-range extension. Cenozoic basin-fill strata, ranging 

in age from greater than or equal to 40 to approximately 

2 million years are common within mountain-range uplifts 

in this region. The tectonic fragmentation and local uplift of 

these abandoned basin-fills indicate a multistage history of 

basin-range tectonism. Additionally, the oldest of these strata 

record an earlier, pre-basin-range interval of weak extension 

that formed broad shallow basins that trapped sediments, without forming basin-range topography. 

The Cenozoic basin-fill strata record distinct stratigraphic 

breaks that regionally cluster into tight age ranges, constrained 

by well-dated interbedded volcanic units. Many of these 

stratigraphic breaks are long recognized formation boundaries. 

Most are angular unconformities that coincide with abrupt 

changes in depositional environment. Deposits that bound 

these unconformities indicate they are weakly diachronous; 

they span about 1 to 2 million years and generally decrease in 

age to the west within individual basins and regionally, across 

basin boundaries.

Across these unconformities, major changes are found 

in the distribution and provenance of basin-fill strata, and 

in patterns of internal facies. These features indicate rapid, 

regionally coordinated changes in strain patterns defined by 

major active basin-bounding faults, coincident with step-wise 

migrations of the belt of active basin-range tectonism. The 

regionally correlative unconformities thus record short intervals of radical tectonic change, here termed “tectonic reorganizations.” The intervening, longer (about 3- to 5-million-year) 

interval of gradual, monotonic evolution in the locus and style 

of tectonism are called “tectonic stages.” 

The belt of active tectonism in the Death Valley region 

has abruptly stepped westward during three successive 

tectonic reorganizations that intervened between four stages 

of basin-range tectonism, the youngest of which is ongoing. 

These three tectonic reorganizations also intervened between 

four stages of volcanic activity, each of which has been 

distinct in the compositions of magmas erupted, in eruption 

rates, and in the locus of volcanic activity—which has stepped 

progressively westward, in close coordination with the stepwise migrations in the locus of basin-range extension. 

The timing of the Cenozoic tectonic reorganizations 

in the Death Valley region correlates closely with the documented timing of episodic reorganizations of the boundary 

between the Pacific and North American plates, to the west 

and southwest. This supports models that explain the widely 

distributed transtensional tectonism in southwestern North 

America since approximately 40 million years ago as resulting 

from traction imposed by the adjacent, divergent Pacific plate.

Introduction

This study integrates observations of space-time patterns 

in the migration of extensional tectonism, related magmatism, 

and associated basin-fill tectono-stratigraphy of the Death 

Valley region. The three primary objectives of this study are: 

(1) to define a Cenozoic stratigraphy of the Death Valley 

region based on the temporal tectonic evolution, (2) to apply 

this tectono-stratigraphy to analyze the spatial patterns of 

Death Valley tectonism from the late Eocene to the present, and 

(3) to develop an understanding of the processes that underlie 

the observed pattern of tectonic evolution. The resultant data 

lead to the interpretation that the migration of extensional 

tectonism and related volcanism in the Death Valley region 

(figs. 1 and 2) was punctuated by short [about 1- to 2-millionyear (m.y.)] intervals in which the locus and architecture of 

tectonic deformation, and the style of volcanism were radically modified, separating longer (about 3- to 5-m.y.) intervals 

in which tectonic deformation and related volcanism progressed with only gradual, monotonic evolution.

The short intervals of radical change are here termed 

“tectonic reorganizations,” whereas the intervening longer 

intervals of monotonic evolution are called “tectonic stages.” 

The tectonic reorganizations are recorded in the Cenozoic 

strata of the region as distinct, regionally correlative stratigraphic breaks, and many of these have long been recognized 

as formation boundaries. The existence of these regionally 

correlative unconformities was previously documented in the 

north-central part of the Death Valley region (Snow and Lux, 

Cenozoic Tectonic Reorganizations of the Death Valley 

Region, Southeast California and Southwest Nevada 

By Christopher J. Fridrich and Ren A. Thompson
2 Cenozoic Tectonic Reorganizations of the Death Valley Region, Southeast California and Southwest Nevada

N

COLORADO

PLATEAU

SIERRA NEVADA

CASCADES

Central

Rocky

Mountains

Southern

Rocky

Mountains

WYOMING

BASIN

Northern

Rocky 

Mountains

NORTHERN

BASIN

AND

 RANGE

COLUMBIA

 RIVER

 PLATEAU

SNAKE SNAKE

RIVER 

PLAIN

North half

of Walker

Lane belt

Metamorphic core

 complex

Direction of upper-

 plate (extensional)

 transport (on detach-

 ment fault)

Direction of upper-plate

 transport (no exposed

 detachment fault)

DEATH VALLEY 

 REGION

RIVER RIVER 

PLAIN

EXPLANATION

Strike-slip fault

Base modified from U.S. Geological Survey 

1:100,000-scale map

SOUTHERN

BASIN AND

RANGE

MOJAVE

CANADA

MEXICO

UNITED 

STATES

UNITED 

STATES

50°

45°

40°

35°

30°

125° 120° 115° 110° 105°

Figure 1. Death Valley region in relation to the tectonic provinces of the western United States 

and to the well-documented metamorphic core complexes, modified from Wust (1986). Death 

Valley region corresponds to the south half of the Walker Lane belt as defined by Stewart (1988).
Introduction 3

Base modified from U.S. Geological Survey 

1:100,000-scale map

Modern range-basin outlines

Strike-slip fault

SIERRA NEVADA

Avawatz 

 Range

Amargosa

 Desert

NV

CA

Study

area

White Mountains

Inyo Mountains

ARGUS RANGE

SLATE RANGE

MOJAVE

Cottonwood 

Mountains

Owens

Valley

Panamint Valley

NEVADA

TEST

SITE

DEATH

Mountain

Bare

Clark Mountains

CALIFORNIA

NEVADA

CALIFORNIA

NEVADA

Spring Mountains

CDVR

Grapevine–Funeral Mountains

WESTERN

BOUNDARY OF

DEATH VALLEY

REGION

KR

SVB

Indian

 Wells

Valley

Eureka Valley

SALINE

RANGE

Saline

Valley

LVVSZ

NORTHERN

BASIN

AND

RANGE

AVAWATZ 

 RANGE

118 ̊ 117 ̊ 116 ̊

37 ̊

36 ̊

GARLOCK

FAULT

Black Mountains

NOPAH RANGE

RSR

VALLEY

0

0 50 KILOMETERS

20 50 MILES

20 

30

30

40

40

10

10

PAHRUMP

BASIN

PANAMINT

RANGE

EXPLANATION

Figure 2. Physiographic map of the Death Valley region, showing the Sierra Nevada at the western boundary, the Mojave region 

to the south across the Garlock fault, the Northern Basin and Range block to the northeast across the Las Vegas Valley shear zone 

(LVVSZ), the outline of the central Death Valley rhombochasm (CDVR), the Resting Spring Range (RSR), the Kingston Range (KR), 

and the Shadow Valley Basin (SVB). 
4 Cenozoic Tectonic Reorganizations of the Death Valley Region, Southeast California and Southwest Nevada

1999). These stratigraphic boundaries extend throughout the 

region and perhaps beyond, and their formation coincided with 

rapid changes in the regional strain regime, and in the locus 

and style of basin-range tectonism and related volcanism. New 

data and interpretations are presented based on regional geologic mapping, re-interpretations of previously mapped terrain, 

and new argon geochronology to examine the role of tectonic 

reorganizations in the evolution of the Death Valley region. An 

analysis of the processes that underlie tectonic reorganizations 

is provided in the summary.

Death Valley Region and Its 

Boundaries

The Death Valley domain differs from adjacent regions in 

structural style and resulting topography. The Cenozoic 

tectonic history and, consequently, the tectono-stratigraphy 

have internally consistent temporal and spatial patterns 

throughout this region. Both are distinctly different even short 

distances across the boundaries into adjacent regions, at least 

in terms of when basin-range tectonism began, when and if it 

has ended, and what the pattern of migration of basin-range 

tectonism has been. The Death Valley region extends from 

the southern part of the Nevada Test Site, southward to the 

Garlock fault, and from the Springs Mountains westward to 

the eastern front of the Sierra Nevada (figs. 1, 2, and 3). These 

boundaries are similar to those of the south half of the Walker 

Lane belt, as defined by Stewart (1988). Stewart documented 

that the Walker Lane belt has a structural grain that reflects 

strike-slip strain that is greater in magnitude, or different in 

sense, than that in the surrounding regions. The north half of 

Stewart’s Walker Lane belt is not included in this study, partly 

because it has an older (pre-≈16 Ma) history of basin-range 

extension that is absent in the south half. 

Tectonic timing in the bordering Mojave region (figs. 1 

and 2), southward across the Garlock fault, differed radically 

from that of the Death Valley region. Basin-range extension 

ended in the Mojave shortly before it began in the Death 

Valley region (Glazner and others, 2002). Moreover, the direction of migration of basin-range tectonism in the Mojave was 

northeastward, in contrast to the westward migration indicated 

in the Death Valley region. Further, the Cenozoic pattern of 

strike-slip strain in the Mojave is sinistral, whereas in the 

Death Valley region, it is dextral. 

The Spring Mountains (fig. 2), which constitute a large, 

nearly unextended block, separate the Death Valley region 

from the Lake Mead region and the northern Colorado River 

extensional corridor, to the east and southeast (fig. 1). Basinrange extension began in the Lake Mead region earlier than in 

the Death Valley region, and the locus of tectonism migrated 

to the north-northwest between about ≈19 to ≈8 Ma (Faulds 

and others, 1999).

The northeastern boundary of the Death Valley region 

is the same as that of the Walker Lane belt through the 

southern part of the Nevada Test Site, and the specific trace of 

this boundary (fig. 2), is based on structural and paleomagnetic 

data (Minor and others,1997; Hudson and others,1994). Southeast of the Nevada Test Site, this boundary follows the Las 

Vegas Valley shear zone (fig. 2). Northeast of this shear zone, 

in the southernmost part of the Northern Basin and Range 

block, the Cenozoic strata record an earlier (≈19 Ma) onset of 

basin-range extension, as discussed below.

The eastern front of the Sierra Nevada forms the western 

boundary of the Death Valley region (figs. 1 and 2), as well as 

that of the Basin and Range Province as a whole. The part of 

the region between this range front and Panamint Valley (figs. 1 

and 2) received much less attention in this study; consequently 

additional data from this area may result in revision of some 

details presented here.

Strike-Slip Offsets within the Death 

Valley Region

Strong transtensional deformation within the Death 

Valley region is constrained by offsets of numerous oncecontinuous, or once-adjacent features that have been correlated 

across the major Cenozoic strike-slip and detachment faults of 

the region (fig. 3). These offset features include late Paleozoic through (mainly) Mesozoic thrust faults (Stewart, 1983; 

Snow and Wernicke, 2000), isopachs of strongly westwardthickening Neoproterozoic and Cambrian formations (Stewart, 

1983), Mesozoic intrusive boundaries (Burchfiel and others, 

1987; Carl and Glazner, 2002), and proximal sedimentary and 

volcanic facies in certain Cenozoic strata that are found far 

from their source areas (for example, see Brady, 1986). When 

deformation is restored across the major Cenozoic strike-slip 

faults, these correlative features must be rejoined. The single 

major constraint that this restoration provides is that a large, 

generally rhombus-shaped area in the center of the Death 

Valley region, herein referred to as the central Death 

Valley rhombochasm (CDVR; figs. 2 and 3), almost completely closes (Stewart, 1983). 

Stewart (1983) proposed that the central Death Valley 

rhombochasm is a basin that is floored by a tectonically 

denuded, and originally west-dipping detachment fault. 

Thus, the rocks exposed in the Panamint Range, on the west 

side of the central Death Valley rhombochasm, constitute an 

upper plate that restores southeastward, over the area of this 

supradetachment basin and against the Resting Spring Range 

(RSR; on fig. 2), on the east side of the rhombochasm. A thick 

Neoproterozoic and Paleozoic miogeoclinal section is exposed 

in the Resting Spring and Panamint Ranges, but is absent 

within all but the easternmost part of the central Death Valley 

rhombochasm, where only fragments of it are preserved and 

exposed—as small, strongly tilted fault blocks and as widely 
Strike-Slip Offsets within the Death Valley Region 5

NEVADA

TEST

SITE

CDVR

117 ̊ 116 ̊

37 ̊

36 ̊

Last Chance thrust

Marble thrust

Lemoigne thrust

High-angle normal fault

Strike-slip fault

150-meter Zabriskie Quartzite isopach

600-meter Stirling Quartzite isopach

Noonday Dolomite pinchout

Deposits of the

Nova Basin

Granite at

Kingston Peak 

Gneiss at

Holloran Hills

Sediments derived

from there

Hunter Mountain 

Quartz Monzonite

NDVF

PVF

RV

LVVSZ

SF

KB SHF

SDVF

WWF

SHGB

RCF

RCF

Indian

Wells

Valley GARLOCK FAULT

Thrust faults, teeth on upper plate

Other faults, dashed where location inferred;

 decoration on downthrown side

Isopachs/Pinchout

Rock units

Detachment (or low-angle) normal fault

Breccia derived

from there

MCB

SAD

NAD

KRD

CBH

CM

SFM

VC

OM

HH

HIW

EXPLANATION

SVB

Spring Mountains

AVAWATZ

RANGE

BU

Independence

dike swarm

RVF

SV

SNVF

NORTHERN BOUNDARY OF DEATH 

VALLEY REGION 

Base modified from U.S. Geological 

Survey 

1:100,000-scale map

Study

area

NV

CA

0

0 50 KILOMETERS

20 50 MILES

20 

30

30

40

40

10

10

Figure 3. Tectonic map of the Death Valley 

region showing the major strike-slip faults and 

the tectonically denuded area of the central 

Death Valley rhombochasm (CDVR), along with 

major piercing points that are offset across 

these structures. Offset features include: 

(1) correlated thrust fault segments, (2) two 

isopachs and a pinchout of key formations 

(Stewart, 1983; Snow and Wernicke, 2000), 

(3) offset Mesozoic intrusions (Burchfiel and 

others, 1987; Carl and Glazner, 2002), and (4) 

offset Tertiary features. The major strike-slip 

faults include the Panamint Valley fault (PVF), 

the southern Death Valley fault (SDVF), the 

Sheephead fault (SHF), the northern Death Valley 

fault (NDVF), the Stateline fault system (SF), and 

the Las Vegas Valley shear zone (LVVSZ). Other 

faults shown include the Wingate Wash fault 

(WWF), the northern and southern segments 

of the Amargosa detachment fault (NAD and 

SAD), the Kingston Range detachment fault 

(KRD), and the Rock Valley fault (RVF). RV, Rock 

Valley. Offset Tertiary features include the two 

segments of the Raven Canyon fault (RCF), the 

proximal granite breccia at Sherry Hills (SHGB) 

and its source the granite at Kingston Peak, 

and the boulder conglomerates of the Military 

Canyon Basin (MCB) that were derived from the 

gneiss of the Holloran Hills (HH; Brady, 1986). 

SVB, Shadow Valley Basin; SV, Stewart Valley. 

The southwest Nevada volcanic field (SNVF) 

straddles the northern boundary of the Death 

Valley region.
6 Cenozoic Tectonic Reorganizations of the Death Valley Region, Southeast California and Southwest Nevada

scattered breccia masses. Moreover, the rocks that underlie the 

Tertiary basin-fill in the central Death Valley rhombochasm 

evidently are a core-complex of metamorphic and intrusive 

rocks. Uplift ages on the metamorphic rocks indicate that 

large-scale tectonic denudation and uplift of the basin floor 

occurred during the time of strongest local basin-range tectonism, between about 14 and 7 Ma (Holm and others, 1992). 

The strike-slip faults of the Death Valley region (fig. 3) 

are Cenozoic, with only one possible exception, discussed 

below. Therefore, offsets of pre-Tertiary features, such as 

thrust faults and isopachs, constrain the total offsets across 

the strike-slip faults, which can be compared to the offsets of 

Tertiary features of various ages. These comparisons provide 

some evidence of the timing of major slip on the strike-slip 

faults. Six examples follow:

(1) The Sheephead fault (SHF; fig. 3) offsets two large 

Tertiary granite bodies adjacent to, but on opposite sides of 

this fault. The granites are indistinguishable petrographically, 

and intrude the same host rocks. One is the granite at Kingston 

Peak (≈12.5 Ma; Friedmann, 1999), which is a spectacular 

cliff-former. The other is the granite at Sperry Hills, which 

barely starts up in relief against the ≈12 to 8 Ma moderately 

consolidated alluvial conglomerates and playa claystones that 

surround it. The granite at Sperry Hills is a proximal rockavalanche deposit, based on ubiquitous brecciation, giant 

(as much as 100s of meters) clast size, and local exposure of 

Miocene sedimentary strata beneath it. The current separation 

between the two granite bodies suggests that the Sheephead 

fault has about 20 kilometers (km) of right-lateral offset in this 

locale, all of which was incurred between ≈12.5 Ma (the age 

of the granite at Kingston Peak) and ≈7 Ma, the age of initiation of younger faults that crosscut the Sheephead fault in the 

area of Virgin Canyon (VC, fig. 3).

(2) Brady (1986) documented that the southern Death 

Valley fault (SDVF; fig. 3) has a minimum of 25 km of 

right-lateral offset based on the distance between proximally 

derived conglomerate in the Military Canyon Basin (MCB, 

fig. 3) containing large subangular boulders of 1.7 Ga gneiss, 

and the source of these boulders in the Holloran Hills (HH; 

bottom-center; fig. 3), on the opposite side of the fault. The 

boulder conglomerate dates from ≈11 Ma, based on available 

K-Ar ages (Brady and Troxel, 1999). Offsets of pre-Tertiary 

features across the southern Death Valley and Sheephead 

faults, together, are estimated roughly at 70 km (fig. 3), and 

thus are perhaps 50 km on the southern Death Valley fault 

alone. Whereas Brady’s (1986) 25 km estimate is a minimum, 

the boulder conglomerate is unlikely to be offset by 50 km; 

hence, significant slip evidently occurred on this fault before 

≈11 Ma. However, ≈14 Ma volcanic rocks found near the 

Wingate Wash fault (WWF; fig. 3) are similar to volcanic 

rocks of the same age exposed ≈50 km to the southeast, on 

the opposite side of the southern Death Valley fault, suggesting there was little or no offset before ≈14 Ma. Right-lateral 

offsets of early Quaternary features across the fault indicate a 

recent slip rate (~0.03 cm/yr; Machette and others, 2001) that 

is more than an order of magnitude lower than the evident rate 

in the Miocene.

(3) Evidence of similar timing is found along the northern 

Death Valley-Furnace Creek fault (NDVF; fig. 2). Specifically, 

pre-basin-range strata in the Cottonwood Mountains (CM; 

fig. 3) are strikingly similar, in lithology, provenance, and 

other features, to those of the southern Funeral Mountains 

(SFM; fig. 3), on the opposite side of the fault. Thus, it appears 

probable that offset on this fault was lacking or minor before 

the advent of basin-range tectonism in the central part of the 

region, at ≈14 Ma. Alluvial conglomerates and sandstones 

dated at ≥13.5 Ma in the southern Funeral Mountains thicken 

and coarsen toward the Furnace Creek fault, indicating this 

fault began to move at ≈14 Ma. Pre-Cenozoic features indicate 

≈80 km of total right-lateral offset across the northern Death 

Valley-Furnace Creek fault at the northwestern tip of the central Death Valley rhombochasm (fig. 3; Stewart, 1983). 

At a site called Hole-in-the-Wall (HIW; fig. 3), Blair and 

Raynolds (1999) estimated that ≈8 km of right-lateral offset across the Furnace Creek segment of the northern Death 

Valley-Furnace Creek fault occurred after deposition of basal 

conglomerates of the Furnace Creek Formation (dating from 

≈6.5 Ma). Further, their study concluded that significant strikeslip offset ended at this site by the end of deposition of this 

formation (at ≈3.5 Ma; both the ≈6.5 and the ≈3.5 Ma estimates 

are based on new data collected in this study). Blair and 

Raynolds’ estimates are not strictly comparable with the ≈80 

km total offset, above, because the southeasternmost part of 

the northern Death Valley segment of the fault, in the northwestern part of the central Death Valley rhombochasm, is still 

active, and has incurred a maximum of ≈10 km of right-lateral 

offset since ≈7 Ma, during the opening of Badwater Basin (that 

part of Death Valley physiographic feature that lies along the 

western side of the central Death Valley rhombochasm; fig. 2). 

Adding these figures, perhaps 18 of the total 80 km of rightlateral offset across the northern Death Valley-Furnace Creek 

fault has occurred in the last 7 m.y., whereas the remainder—

the vast majority—occurred between ≈14 and ≈7 Ma. 

(4) The fourth example is along the Stateline fault system 

(SF; fig. 3) in the southwestern part of the Nevada Test Site 

and west of there, across the Amargosa Desert Basin. Two 

fault exposures are found on either side of this basin, both 

identified here as the Raven Canyon fault system (RCF; fig. 

3). If the correlation of the two is correct, northwest-striking 

strike-slip faults in the Amargosa Desert Basin (the Stateline 

fault system) offset this feature by about 25 km right-laterally, 

roughly the same as the offset of pre-Tertiary features in the 

same area. The basis of correlation is similarity in structural 

style, timing of slip, and presence of unique volcanic facies 

(R. Warren, retired, Los Alamos Labs, oral commun., 2003) 

immediately downthrown on the Raven Canyon fault on either 

side of the Amargosa Desert, but nowhere else. The Raven 

Canyon fault system is buried upsection by tuffs dated at ≈13 

Ma on both sides of the Stateline fault, thus most if not all 

offset on the Stateline fault system postdates ≈13 Ma. 
Strike-Slip Offsets within the Death Valley Region 7

Two other constraints are known on the timing of the 

Stateline fault. First, alluvial conglomerates containing a tuff 

dated at ≈11.5 Ma (R. Fleck, USGS, Menlo Park, CA; unpub. 

data, about 1985), near the base, show strongly fanning dips 

perpendicular to this fault adjacent to the Black Butte pressure ridge (BB; fig. 3) in the southern part of the Pahrump 

Basin. The rocks uplifted in the pressure ridge are syntectonic 

rock-avalanche breccias and intercalated volcanic and lacustrine rocks, dating from ≈14.5 to ≈14 Ma (R. Fleck, unpub. 

data, about 1985). These rocks are strongly tilted and weakly 

folded, but lack evident fanning dips. The progressive syndepositional tilting of the younger sequence was evidently related 

to motion on the fault, strong fault offset started by ≈12 Ma.

Second, in an area about halfway between Raven Canyon 

and Black Butte, Burchfiel and others (1983) estimated that 

the Stateline fault has a right-lateral offset of ≈3 km based 

on offset of a middle through late Miocene (≈12 to ≈7 Ma) 

structure across the fault at the north end of Stewart Valley 

(SV; fig. 3). The offset structure is one of three structures of 

differing character that Burchfiel and others (1983) mistakenly 

lumped as the Six-mile “thrust” (Workman and others, 2004). 

The 3-kilometer estimate is a minimum because it does not 

account for possible post-≈7 Ma offset across another strand of 

the Stateline fault located ≈1 kilometer to the west, which was 

the major strand in the Miocene, but a minor strand since then. 

The 3-kilometer estimate represents the majority of the post-

≈7 Ma offset across the Stateline fault in this area. Combined 

with the above constraints, this suggests that major slip on the 

Stateline fault began at ≈12 Ma, and the majority of total offset 

occurred by ≈7 Ma. The Stateline fault is still active (Menges 

and others, 2003) from the south-central part of the Amargosa 

Desert Basin southeastward through the Pahrump Basin.

(5) The fifth example is in the central Bullfrog Hills 

(CBH; fig. 3), where there is an inactive offshoot of the Stateline fault. A gently arcuate valley in this area extends the entire 

north-south span of the Bullfrog Hills. This valley is interpreted 

as the trace of a strike-slip fault because it juxtaposes strongly 

differing volcanic facies. For example, the 12.8 Ma Topopah 

Springs Tuff thins westward and eventually pinches out across 

the eastern Bullfrog Hills, but then abruptly reappears across 

this valley and is relatively thick in the western Bullfrog Hills. 

Likewise, an ≈11.7 Ma unit of the Timber Mountain Group 

(as redefined by Fridrich and others, 2007; in press) known as 

the “pre-Rainier rhyolite” changes westward from proximal 

to distal character across the eastern Bullfrog Hills. This unit 

is then proximal in character in the western Bullfrog Hills, 

immediately westward of the long, arcuate fault valley. The 

offset facies patterns across the Bullfrog Hills indicate that the 

fault in the central Bullfrog Hills has a minimum right-lateral 

offset of ≈10 km, post-11.7 Ma. 

Strong extension-related tilting of Miocene strata in the 

central Bullfrog Hills is buried upsection. Immediately east of 

the arcuate fault valley, strata dating from ≥11 Ma are tilted as 

much as 50o and dips then decline upsection to ≤10o at the 

≈9 Ma level. Immediately west of the valley, Tertiary strata 

dating from ≈9 Ma are tilted as much as 70o, and dips then 

decline upsection to ≤10o at the ≈7.5 Ma level (Maldonado, 

1990; Maldonado and Hausback, 1990; Fridrich, unpub. data, 

2005). The ≈7.5 Ma rocks are overlain, without evident disconformity, by untilted alluvial conglomerates that fill the arcuate 

valley and, although poorly exposed, show no evidence of 

being faulted. Thus, the strike-slip faulting in the central Bullfrog Hills occurred largely if not entirely within the ≈11.7 to 

≈7 Ma interval. 

(6) Deposits of the Nova Basin—that major part of the 

Nova Formation (Snyder and Hodges, 2000) that ranges in age 

from ≈7 to ≈3 Ma—are exposed on either side of the Panamint 

Valley fault (PVF; fig. 3). These strata are offset right-laterally 

to the same degree as the southeastern contact of the Jurassic 

Hunter Mountain Quartz Monzonite pluton. Thus, the Panamint 

Valley fault evidently has been active only since ≈3 Ma. 

Whereas much of the information above is only semiquantitative, some generalizations can be made: 

First, the timing of major slip on all of the large strikeslip faults within the Death Valley region is within the ≈16 Ma 

to present interval of basin-range extension. 

Second, only the northern Death Valley-Furnace Creek 

fault and the southern Death Valley fault show clear evidence 

of slip in the ≈14 to ≈12 Ma interval. Additional information 

about the slip histories of these two faults is recorded in the 

basin-fill deposits in the central Death Valley rhombochasm 

because the opening of this feature was directly related to 

slip on these two bounding strike-slip faults. In combination, 

the data indicate the majority of slip on both of these faults 

occurred between ≈12 and ≈7 Ma, with significantly lower 

slip rates before and after. Slip on the Sheephead fault and on 

the unnamed strike-slip fault in the central Bullfrog Hills was 

entirely confined to the ≈12 to ≈7 Ma interval. 

Third, the Panamint Valley fault alone is quite young 

(≈3 Ma). The slip rate on this fault has been much smaller than 

the average slip rates for the northern and southern Death 

Valley faults, but is comparable to the post-≈7 Ma slip rates 

for both of those faults. 

The above discussion leaves out strike-slip faults that 

form parts of the boundaries of the Death Valley region, 

namely the Las Vegas Valley shear zone, and the Garlock and 

Owens Valley faults. The Las Vegas Valley shear zone can 

be viewed as being, at least partly, an accommodation zone 

between the nearly unextended Spring Mountains block and 

the strongly extended area immediately to the northeast across 

this fault. The timing of that extension to the northeast is 

recorded by fanning dips in syntectonic basin-fill strata. Synbasin-range deposits in this area include strongly tilted basal 

rock-avalanche breccias, derived from adjacent range-front 

fault scarps, and these breccias are intercalated with two tuffs, 

which were sampled. Based on detailed petrography, 

R. Warren (retired, Los Alamos National Labs, written 

commun., 2002), identified these units as the ≈19 Ma tuff 

of Twin Peaks and the ≈18.5 Ma Hiko Tuff. The two major 

tuffs of the Timber Mountain Group (dated at 11.6 and 11.45 

Ma; Sawyer and others, 1994) are intercalated near the tops 

of the same basin-fill sections and are only tilted ≈10o. Thus, 
8 Cenozoic Tectonic Reorganizations of the Death Valley Region, Southeast California and Southwest Nevada

basin-range extension in this area began at ≈19 Ma and was 

winding down by ≈11 Ma. As a first-order estimate, data suggests that the timing on the Las Vegas Valley shear zone is the 

same; however, this major strike-slip fault may be more than 

just an accommodation zone, and may thus have a longer and 

more complex history than is suggested by this evidence.

Based on recent detailed mapping and analysis by Andrew 

and others (2010), motion on the Garlock fault initiated 

between ≈18 and ≈15 Ma, and resulted in ≈15 km of leftlateral offset by ≈12 Ma. This was followed by a hiatus, with 

little or no offset between ≈12 and ≈6 Ma. Slip restarted as 

early as ≈6 Ma, but the current high rate of slip probably did 

not begin until ≈3 Ma. Total slip since ≈6 Ma has been ≈50 km, 

for a total left-lateral offset (of the Independence dike swarm; 

fig. 3) of ≈65 km (Carl and Glazner, 2002).

The northern part of Owens Valley (in the northern half 

of the Walker Lane belt; fig. 1) did not form until ≈3 Ma 

(Henry and others, 2007). The southern part of Owens 

Valley, however, contains syntectonic basin fill as old as ≈6 Ma 

(Duffield and others, 1980), as discussed below; however, the 

major basin subsidence even in the southern part of this basin 

evidently has been from ≈3 Ma to present. Whereas total rightlateral offset across the Owens Valley fault is estimated at 

≈65 km, it is unclear how much of this offset is Tertiary and 

how much may be Mesozoic (see Phillips, 2009, and references therein).

In addition to the major strike-slip faults, there is 

evidence for some large-scale steep-axis folding across the 

northern part of the Death Valley region that reflects dextral 

oroflexural bending, and that deforms the Mesozoic thrust 

faults. In the major area of oroflexure, in and around Rock 

Valley (RV; fig. 3), paleomagnetic results indicate that the 

bending predates the local volcanic rocks, including the 13.3 

Ma Bullfrog Tuff (Hudson and others, 1994). It, thus, also 

predates the onset of basin-range extension in this part of 

the region. This pre-basin-range oroflexure is a product of 

strike-slip deformation, but only limited strike-slip faulting was 

involved; and structures associated with basin-range extension cut across it. The oroflexure in and around Rock Valley 

lies immediately beyond the northwest termination of the Las 

Vegas Valley shear zone, and appears to be related to it geometrically. If so, this shear zone formed in the pre-basin-range 

interval.

Cenozoic Stratigraphy and Structure 

The Cenozoic basin-fill stratigraphy of the Death Valley 

region provides the principal record of the tectonic evolution 

of this region during the last ≥40 m.y. The following regional 

tectono-stratigraphic classification (fig. 4) is, partly, a modification of one proposed by Snow and Lux (1999). 

The Cenozoic rocks of the Death Valley region are 

divided into three sequences: (1) pre-basin-range (≥40 to 

≈12 Ma), (2) syn-basin-range (≈16 Ma to present), and 

(3) post-basin-range (≤12 Ma to present; see inset figure, 

bottom-center of fig. 4). These three sequences are strongly 

diachronous, and are younger to the west. Two of these 

sequences are divided by regional unconformities into assemblages. Discussion of the seven allostratigraphic units of the 

region are presented in conjunction with maps (figs. 5 to 11) 

showing the distribution of each unit, the major active faults 

in each corresponding tectonic stage, and the distribution and 

composition of associated volcanic rocks. Also shown are 

calderas formed in voluminous ash-flow tuff eruptions, and 

some large folds that have locally formed in the Cenozoic rocks 

(fig. 10). 

Pre-Basin-Range Sequence 

The pre-basin-range sequence of the Death Valley region 

is divided by the ≈19 to ≈16 Ma lacuna into the older, ≥40 

to ≈19 Ma Titus Canyon and the younger, ≈16 to ≈12 Ma 

Hells Gate assemblages (fig. 4). The Hells Gate assemblage 

is restricted to the areas of the Titus Canyon and Ubehebe 

Basins, defined below (and see figs. 6 and 7), and everywhere overlies the Titus Canyon assemblage where the base 

is exposed. In contrast, isolated paleocanyon fills of Titus 

Canyon assemblage are locally found in several widely scattered locations far beyond the Titus Canyon and Ubehebe 

Basins (fig. 5). Subtle differences in the provenance of the two 

pre-basin-range assemblages indicate only minor change in the 

tectonic architecture and resulting topography during the ≈19 

to ≈16 Ma interval of nondeposition. 

A defining feature of the pre-basin-range sequence is the 

distal provenance of the predominantly fluvial sedimentary 

rocks that compose it. Rivers carried clasts, including ones 

of Mesozoic igneous rocks found only in the western part 

of the region, eastward at least to the east-central part of the 

region. Fluvial transport was occurring across a broad area that 

is now interrupted by several mountain ranges and intervening 

closed basins. Thus, the earliest interval of Cenozoic extension formed broad shallow basins that trapped sediments, but 

evidently predated the formation of basin-range topography. 

Syndepositional, extension-related tilting is rare within the 

pre-basin-range sequence, in contrast to the syn-basin-range 

sequence, in which fanning dips and local internal unconformities are common.

Proximal conglomerates and breccias are locally present 

in the basal Titus Canyon assemblage, but they are volumetrically minor. Distally derived detritus makes up the remainder 

of the sedimentary component of both pre-basin-range assemblages, excluding locally derived volcaniclastic material in the 

Hells Gate assemblage. In contrast, most sedimentary strata in 

the syn-basin-range assemblages are proximal in character. 

In a small area in the northeastern part of the region, 

in Rock Valley (RV; fig. 5), the fluvial sediments in the 

pre-basin-range sequence are derived from the east 

(Murray, 2002), instead of from the west. And in a narrow corridor between the areas of easterly and westerly provenance, 
Cenozoic Stratigraphy and Structure 9

the most conspicuous sediments in the Titus Canyon assemblage 

are tuffaceous siltstones that evidently were derived from 

central Nevada—from the north. A similar corridor of northerly 

provenance is found in the Hells Gate assemblage, but it is 

shifted westward into the area immediately downthrown on 

the Raven Canyon fault (RCF, figs. 6 and 7). 

Titus Canyon Assemblage

The Titus Canyon assemblage includes the Titus Canyon 

and Ubehebe Formations of the Grapevine and Cottonwood 

Mountains, respectively (GM and CM; fig. 5; Reynolds, 1969; 

Snow and Lux, 1999), the rocks of Winapi Wash in Rock 

Valley and vicinity (RV; J. Yount and D. O’Leary, USGS, oral 

commun., 1995), and the Amargosa Valley Formation of the 

southern Funeral Mountains (SFM; fig. 5; Cemen and others, 

1999). The basal strata of the Titus Canyon assemblage are 

locally as old as late Eocene and they overlie late Paleozoic 

through Neoproterozoic sedimentary units on a regional 

unconformity. During the initial deposition of this assemblage, 

the Death Valley region probably was part of the eastern flank 

of a broad, deeply eroded Mesozoic mountain range, with its 

crest near the current eastern front of the Sierra Nevada. 

Snow and Lux (see their fig. 12; 1999) interpreted the 

Titus Canyon and Ubehebe Formations as representing two 

sequential cycles of sedimentation separated by a subtle 

unconformity that formed at a date they estimated at ≈25 Ma. 

In their model, the fill of the Ubehebe Basin is the younger 

Ubehebe Formation alone and that of the Titus Canyon Basin 

is the two formations stacked. The ≈25 Ma stratigraphic 

boundary they propose is not included in the tectono-stratigraphy 

(fig. 4) because there is only a single locale, in the central 

0

5

10

15

20

30

 40

0

3

6

11

12

15

16

19

27

Age (Ma) Volcanism

Very low rate basaltic;

except low-rate true

bimodal in Owens Valley

Desert alluvium >

lacustrine (all playa clay)

>> fluvial/much gypsum

Moderate-rate true-bimodal

basalt > to >> felsic;

no intermediates

Desert alluvium > fluvial >

lacustrine: (playa clay >>

freshwater limestone)

Fluvial _ lacustrine:

(limestone > claystone)

minor gypsum

Gypsum, but rare; mammal fossils common

(limestone > claystone)

Very high rate quasibimodal: felsics > basalt

> andesite and latite

% basalt increases up

Desert alluvium = fluvial >

lacustrine: (claystone >

limestone) gypsum common,

rare fossil plants, mostly palms

Moderate–rate andesiterhyolite association:

Fluvial = lacustrine:

(claystone _ limestone) >>

non-desert alluvium, moderate

gypsum, fossil metasequoias

nondeposition

No local volcanism but

abundant distal tuffs

Fewer and more distal

volcaniclastics + rare tuffs

Very rare tuffs, trivial volcaniclastics

Extremely rare or no tuffs or volcaniclastics Basal percussion-marked boulder

conglomerate on ultra-weathered

moderate-relief basal unconformity

~1 m.y. volcanic hiatus Abundant basal breccias

Lithology

FURNACE CREEK

19-16 Ma Lacuna

Cenozoic Stratigraphy of Death Valley Region 

TITUS

CANYON

NAVADU

BADWATER

OWLSHEAD

 HELLS

GATE

W E

(Owens Valley) (Pahrump Basin)

Isolated paleocanyon fill

~

~

>

>

Stage 4:

Stage 3:

Stage 2:

Stage 1:

Age (Ma)

POST–

BASIN–

RANGE

TCFS PRE–BASIN–RANGE

SYN–

BASIN–

RANGE

POSTBASINRANGE

 _ > = ~ Grater than

Equal or greater than

Much greater than

EXPLANATION

Approximately

Approximately equal to

Percent

>

>>

~

%

Figure 4. East-west and chronologic schematic diagram depicting the Cenozoic stratigraphy of the Death Valley region, 

showing the seven tectono-stratigraphic assemblages. Inset map (bottom, center) shows how these assemblages compose 

the pre-basin-range, syn-basin-range, and post-basin-range sequences. Two columns on the right summarize major 

volcanic and lithologic changes that occurred during deposition of Cenozoic strata. Within the Titus Canyon assemblage, 

the Titus Canyon fault system (TCFS) is the boundary between the Titus Canyon and Ubehebe basins.
10 Cenozoic Tectonic Reorganizations of the Death Valley Region, Southeast California and Southwest Nevada

≥ 40 to 19 million years

NDVF

CM

0

0 50 KILOMETERS

20 50 MILES

20 

30

30

40

40

10

10

Spring Mountains

NEVADA

CALIFORNIA

RV

BOUNDARY

SVB

Titus Canyon stage

118° 117° 116°

37°

36°

LCR

GARLOCK FAULT

IWV

SLATE RANGE

 Owlshead

Mountains

CM

TCFS

 SF

 SFM

 SGM

NORTHEAST

UBEHEBE

FAULT

Base modified from U.S. Geological Survey 

1:100,000 scale map.

EXPLANATION

SIERRA NEVADA

Study

area

NV

Pre-basin-range CA

 sedimentary rocks

Modern range-basin outlines

Depositional outlines

Later-formed boundaries

Death Valley region limit

Detachment fault

Strike-slip fault

Normal fault

Paleocanyon fill 

Figure 5. Present-day distribution of the ≥40-to-≈19-Ma Titus Canyon assemblage, showing postdepositional boundaries (internal and external) resulting from offsets across the northern Death Valley 

fault (NDVF) and the Stateline fault system (SF)—offsets which occurred primarily after ≈12 Ma. The 

only faults known to be active during deposition of the Titus Canyon Assemblage are the westernmost 

Fall Canyon segment of the Titus Canyon fault system (TCFS); and the Ubehebe fault , at the northwest 

limit of the Cottonwood Mountains (CM). Locations of paleocanyon fills of percussion-marked boulder 

conglomerates are shown with squiggly symbols; similar isolated pre-basin-range conglomerates have 

been reported, without exact locations, in the Last Chance Range (LCR), the Slate Range, the Owlshead 

Mountains, and the Shadow Valley Basin (SVB). Physiographic features shown are the southern 

Grapevine and southern Funeral Mountains (SGM and SFM), Indian Wells Valley (IWV), and Rock Valley 

(RV).
Cenozoic Stratigraphy and Structure 11

Funeral Mountains (at ≈116o 45’ and ≈36o 37’) where this 

unconformity is straightforward (C. Fridrich, unpub. mapping, 

about 2000). It closely underlies a tuff that this study identifies 

as the ≈27 Ma Monotony Tuff, based on its petrographic characteristics; hence, ≈28 Ma is a better estimate of its age. This 

unconformity may well be present on a widespread basis but, 

if so, it is obscured in most locales by poor exposure or poor 

development of paleohorizontal indicators. Thus, it is not a 

regionally traceable stratigraphic boundary and, although its 

position is marked (fig. 4), it is not a recognized boundary in 

our stratigraphy. Nonetheless, it is the only known unconformity that formed in the ≥40 to ≈19 Ma interval, and thus may 

have regional tectonic significance, as discussed below.

The major known active structure of the Titus Canyon 

tectonic stage is the Fall Canyon fault (Reynolds, 1969). This 

fault is the southwesternmost strand of the Titus Canyon fault 

system (TCFS; fig. 5), a complex array of related obliqueslip faults exposed in the northeastern flanks of the southern 

Grapevine and northern Funeral Mountains. The thickness of 

the Titus Canyon assemblage, and the age of the strata at its 

base increase greatly northeastward across the Fall Canyon fault 

(Snow and Lux, 1999), indicating that it was active between 

≥40 to ≈19 Ma. Wedges of subangular colluvial boulder conglomerates and rock-avalanche breccias in basal Titus Canyon 

beds of the hangingwall block coarsen and thicken toward the 

fault and were derived from the footwall. 

The Fall Canyon fault has steep dips at structurally 

shallow levels, but abruptly becomes subhorizontal at depth 

(Reynolds, 1969; Fridrich, unpub. mapping, 1995–2001). 

This fault is spectacularly well exposed, such that this unusual 

form is unequivocally that of a single fault. This fault geometry and low-angle fault striae indicate greater strike-slip than 

dip-slip offset. The upper plate of the Fall Canyon fault is cut 

by numerous closely spaced oblique-slip faults that terminate 

downward into the fault; thus it is an example of a “detachment 

fault,” but not the type associated with metamorphic core complexes. Rather, it is a transtensional detachment structure as 

described by Hardyman and Oldow (1991) in the northern half 

of the Walker Lane belt. 

The Titus Canyon fault system was the bounding structure 

of the pre-basin-range Titus Canyon Basin (palinspastically 

restored in fig. 7). Many of the component faults of this fault 

system remained active into the time of basin-range tectonism, 

and activity did not totally cease until ≈10 Ma (Niemi, 2002). 

The partly subhorizontal Fall Canyon strand of the Titus 

Canyon fault system is the only strand that was active only 

during the ≥40 to ≈19 Ma Titus Canyon interval. Its major 

significance is that it proves that the dextral transtensional 

regime of the Death Valley region dates back to the late 

Eocene (≥40 Ma).

Snow and White (1990) documented another fault system 

that was active between ≈30 and ≈19 Ma—the Ubehebe fault, 

in the northern Cottonwood Mountains (CM; fig. 5), which is 

the bounding fault of the Ubehebe Basin. The remnants of the 

Ubehebe Basin are found to the west and south of those of the 

Titus Canyon Basin (fig. 5), but when post-≈12 Ma strike-slip 

deformation is accounted for, this basin was located mainly to 

the south and was upthrown relative to, and shallower than the 

Titus Canyon Basin (fig. 7). 

The Titus Canyon Basin extends from near the California-Nevada border northeastward at least to the northeastern 

boundary of the Death Valley region (figs. 5, 6, and 7). The 

Ubehebe Basin lies southwest of the state line. Where present, 

the Titus Canyon fault system separates the two basins. 

Exposure of this fault system ends to the southeast, but the 

basin boundary appears to roughly follow the state border. The 

pre-≈19 Ma strata in the southern Funeral Mountains (SFM; 

fig. 5), resemble the Ubehebe Formation, whereas coeval 

strata exposed to the northeast of the Funeral Mountains more 

closely match the Titus Canyon Formation. Coeval deposits are present northeast of the Death Valley region, in the 

southern part of the Northern Basin and Range block, but on 

existing maps (Longwell and others, 1965; Tshanz and Pampeyan, 1961) they are lumped with younger units; hence, their 

distribution and character are not well known.

No volcanism was occurring in the Death Valley region 

during the Titus Canyon tectonic stage. The oldest known 

tuff in the Titus Canyon assemblage has been dated at 34.3 Ma 

(Saylor and Hodges, 1994). This tuff is found only in a single 

locale, it is distal in character and, below it, Titus Canyon 

strata contain little or no volcaniclastic material. The 27 Ma 

Monotony Tuff and some minor associated units are thin but 

widespread in the middle of the assemblage. Several tuffs 

dating from ≈24 to 19.5 Ma are found in the upper part of 

the Titus Canyon section. These are also distal in character, 

but much less so than the older intercalated tuffs. Upsection 

increase in abundance of intercalated tuffs and volcaniclastic 

material reflects the progressive advance of active volcanism 

toward the region, from north and south, during the ≥40 to 

≈19 Ma interval, as established by previous regional studies 

(Armstrong and others, 1969; McKee, 1971; Glazner and 

others, 2002).

The erosion surface at the base of the Titus Canyon 

assemblage has a well-developed and commonly thick lateritic 

weathering profile. Paleosols, where preserved, are pure, 

homogenous, microscopically grained, dark-red chemicalresidua soils with remnant clasts of the parent material only 

at the base. Paleocanyons and paleobluffs are locally found 

along the basal surface of the Titus Canyon assemblage. The 

basal strata are ubiquitously coarse grained. Fluvial boulder 

conglomerates fill local basal paleocanyons, in which large 

(maximum size typically ≥1 m) boulders are well rounded and 

heavily percussion-marked, indicating a high-energy depositional environment. In the southern Grapevine Mountains 

(SGM; fig. 5), lacustrine beds, at a stratigraphic level slightly 

above a paleocanyon fill, contained a titanothere skull and 

other mammal bones estimated to be ≥40 Ma. Stock and Bode 

(1935), who first identified these mammal fossils, classified 

them as Oligocene. More recent correlation to well-dated fossils in Nebraska indicates they are late Eocene (oral commun., 

K.C. McKinney, USGS, Denver, 2002). 
12 Cenozoic Tectonic Reorganizations of the Death Valley Region, Southeast California and Southwest Nevada

Bedding in the Titus Canyon assemblage is nearly 

conformable to that of the underlying Paleozoic rocks, except 

where the underlying rocks were folded during late Paleozoic 

and Mesozoic contraction (Reynolds, 1969; Snow and Lux, 

1999). The age of the basal strata varies from ≥40 Ma to 

≈25 Ma, which probably reflects protracted burial of relief 

on the basal surface. The section generally fines upward to 

lacustrine deposits of shale, freshwater limestone, and fine 

sandstone, typically capped by pebbly fluvial red volcaniclastic sandstones in the youngest (post-≈25-Ma) part of the 

assemblage. The capping sandstones may represent a closing 

phase of deposition in which tectonically formed lakes were 

filled in and overlain by a widespread post-tectonic apron of 

fluvial deposits.

Source proximity increases upsection wherein the upper 

part typically contains Mesozoic granitoid and metavolcanic 

clasts only from sources in the Cottonwood Mountains and 

Panamint and Argus Ranges, whereas the lower part includes 

Mesozoic clasts from more distant sources, some perhaps from 

as far west as the Sierra Nevada. This change in provenance 

is accompanied by an upsection decrease in average clast size 

and rounding. 

Climate change also played a role in the upsection lithologic changes found in the Titus Canyon assemblage. Gypsum 

is absent in the oldest part of the Titus Canyon assemblage, is 

only sparsely present below the stratigraphic level of the 

≈27 Ma Monotony Tuff, and then becomes progressively more 

abundant upsection. Fossils of medium to large mammals have 

been found only in the lower part of this assemblage (Stock 

and Bode, 1935), below the Monotony Tuff. Laterites, well 

developed at the beginning of the Titus Canyon tectonic stage, 

had largely disappeared by the end of this interval. All three 

of these changes suggest progressive, although probably not 

monotonic, drying of the climate during the ≥40 to ≈19 Ma 

interval.

In all but the southernmost part of the Death Valley 

region, the Titus Canyon assemblage overlies rocks that are 

nonmetamorphic or that are metamorphosed only to lower 

greenschist grade, at a maximum. Sedimentary clasts in this 

assemblage are also lower greenschist facies, at a maximum, 

excepting some far-traveled Mesozoic metavolcanic clasts 

from the far western part of the region. The significance of 

this is that it relates to the timing of uplift and exposure of 

the moderate- to high-grade metamorphic rocks of the core 

complexes in the central part of the region, as discussed below.

≈19 to ≈16 Ma Lacuna

The Titus Canyon and Hells Gate assemblages are 

everywhere separated by a contact that is at least a disconconformity. In most cases, this contact is a subtle angular unconformity across which there is an abrupt change in lithology, 

clast size and character of included volcaniclastic materials. 

The youngest tuff of Titus Canyon sections, locally found near 

or at the top, yields an age of 19.5 Ma (Cemen and others, 

1999; Snow and Lux, 1999). A widespread tuff found near the 

base of many Hells Gate sections has yielded ages of 15.5 to 

15.9 Ma (Snow and Lux, 1999). Thus, there was a region-wide 

depositional hiatus from ≈19 to ≈16 Ma, and argon age determinations in this range are rare to nonexistent in the Death 

Valley region, although they are common in bordering regions. 

In the ≈19 to ≈16 Ma interval, strong basin-range tectonism was occurring: (1) in the central part of the Walker Lane 

belt (starting at the northwest limit of fig. 2 and extending 

northwest; Weiss and others, 1993), (2) immediately to the 

northeast of the Las Vegas Valley shear zone (this study), 

(3) in the area immediately east of the Spring Mountains 

(Faulds and others, 1999), and (4) in the northern part of the 

Mojave, across the Garlock fault (Spencer, 1993; Glazner and 

others, 2002; Monastero and others, 2002; Andrew and others, 

2010). Thus, although the Death Valley region was tectonically 

quiescent or nearly so in this interval, it was surrounded on 

all but the west side by areas of active basin-range tectonism. 

This provides a probable explanation for the ≈19 to ≈16 Ma 

lacuna. In this interval, the Death Valley region may have been 

a peninsula of only weakly extended rocks, that jutted out on 

the eastern edge of what is the Sierra Nevada block, and that 

stood high relative to actively subsiding basins in surrounding 

regions on all but the west side.

Hells Gate Assemblage of the Hells GateOwlshead Tectonic Stage

The pre-basin-range Hells Gate assemblage is coeval 

with the syn-basin-range Owlshead assemblage, to the southeast, reflecting the diachronous onset of basin-range tectonism 

in the Death Valley region (figs. 4, 5, and 7). The temporal 

equivalence is proven by extensive dating of volcanic interbeds 

in both assemblages. The sedimentary character of the two 

assemblages differs strongly, except that both were deposited 

under the same climatic conditions, as reflected, for example, 

in abundances of gypsum and freshwater limestone in lacustrine beds. Like the Titus Canyon assemblage, the sedimentary 

component of the Hells Gate assemblage is dominated by 

lacustrine and distal fluvial strata, in contrast to that of the 

Owlshead, which is dominated by coarse angular proximal 

deposits, like the other syn-basin-range assemblages.

The Hells Gate assemblage includes sedimentary rocks 

of the Panuga Formation of the Cottonwood Mountains 

(CM; Snow and Lux, 1999), the rocks of Pavits Spring in and 

around Rock Valley (RV; Hinrichs, 1968; plate 1), and the 

“green conglomerate” in the southern Grapevine Mountains 

(GM) and northern Funeral Mountains (fig. 6; Reynolds,1969; 

1974; Snow and Lux, 1999; Fridrich, unpub. mapping, 

1995–2001; and see plate 1). It also includes the older (pre-12 

Ma) volcanic rocks in the southwestern part of the southwest 

Nevada volcanic field (SNVF; fig. 3), including the tuffs and 

lavas of the (12.8 to 12.5 Ma) Paintbrush and (13.5 to 13.1 Ma) 

Crater Flat Groups, the ≈14 Ma Lithic Ridge Tuff and related 

underlying lavas (Sawyer and others, 1994; and see plate 1), 
Cenozoic Stratigraphy and Structure 13

118° 117° 116°

37°

36°

NW Boundary NE Boundary

Owlshead 

assemblage

Hells Gate 

assemblage Spring Mountains

SIERRA NEVADA

GARLOCK FAULT

NDVF

BM

SDVF

TCFS

SF

WWF

OM SAD

NAD

PB

PRD

OHD

RCF

LVVSZ

KB KRD

RCF

RCF

SHF

KR

SR 

CM

EM

RV

CDVR

Hells Gate-Owlshead stage

Mainly ≈16 to ≈12.5 million years 

EXPLANATION

Caldera

Modern range-basin outlines

Depositional outlines

Later-formed boundaries

Death Valley region limit

Detachment fault

Strike-slip fault

Normal fault

Pre-basin-range 

 sedimentary rocks

Syn-basin-range 

 sedimentary rocks

Areas of active uplift

Felsic volcanic rocks

Felsic intrusions

Intermediate volcanic rocks

Base modified from U.S. Geological Survey 

1:100,000 scale map.

Study

area

NV

CA

0

0 50 KILOMETERS

20 50 MILES

20 

30

30

40

40

10

10

GM

SFM

Figure 6. Present-day distributions of the largely coeval pre-basin-range Hells Gate assemblage and syn-basin-range Owlshead 

assemblage, along with the major faults known to be active during the Hells Gate-Owlshead tectonic stage. Also shown is the 

distribution of exposed volcanic rocks and intrusions. Later-formed boundaries resulted from post-depositional right-lateral offsets 

across the southern Death Valley fault (SDVF; ≈25 to 50 km), Sheephead fault (SHF; ≈10 to 20 km) northern Death Valley-Furnace Creek 

fault (NDVF; ≈50 to 80 km), and Stateline fault system (SF; ≈20 to 30 km). Major faults known to be active in the ≈16 to ≈12 Ma interval 

include the Titus Canyon fault system (TCFS; excluding the Fall Canyon fault segment; see fig. 5), the two segments of the Raven Canyon 

fault system (RCF), the Las Vegas Valley shear zone (LVVSZ); the Point of Rocks detachment fault (PRD), the Opera House detachment 

fault (OHD); the north and south segments of Amargosa detachment fault (NAD and SAD); and the Kingston Peak detachment fault 

(KPD), master fault of the ≈15 to ≈12 Ma Kingston Basin. The master fault of the Pahrump Basin (PB) is unnamed, and is an inferred 

detachment fault. The Wingate Wash fault (WWF), in the Owlshead Mountains (OM), is moderate- to low-angle and strongly listric, 

but is not considered a detachment fault by all workers. The volcanic rocks of the north part of this figure lie in the southern half of the 

southwest Nevada volcanic field (SNVF), shown in figure 3.
14 Cenozoic Tectonic Reorganizations of the Death Valley Region, Southeast California and Southwest Nevada

and several older, volcanic and volcaniclastic units dating 

from ≈15 to ≈14.1 Ma, which have been called the Leadfield 

Formation by Snow and Lux (1999). 

The Titus Canyon and Raven Canyon fault systems 

(TCFS and RCF; fig. 6) were active during the Hells GateOwlshead tectonic stage as shown by strong stratigraphic 

thickening of the Hells Gate assemblage across all but one of 

the component faults of both systems. That one component 

fault is the Fall Canyon strand of the Titus Canyon fault system, 

discussed above. The Raven Canyon fault system consists of 

two strands striking northeast and dipping northwest. Both are 

normal faults with a lesser component of left-lateral offset. 

The Raven Canyon fault system was active between ≈16 and 

≈13 Ma, based on the observed pattern of stratigraphic growth 

across it. It may have been active earlier, in the Titus Canyon 

tectonic stage; however, existing data are not definitive.

Volcanism in the Death Valley region began during the 

Hells Gate-Owlshead tectonic stage. Separate volcanic fields 

were active within the domains of Hells Gate and Owlshead 

deposition, both of which can be described as andesite-rhyolite 

associations. The dominantly andesitic Owlshead volcanic 

field in southern part of the Owlshead domain (fig. 6), formed 

between ≈14.5 to ≈12.1 Ma. Synchronous volcanism of the 

early (15.2 to 12.5 Ma) southwest Nevada volcanic field 

(SNVF; fig. 3; Sawyer and others, 1994) was dominated by 

eruption of rhyolite tuffs and lesser andesites in the northeastern 

and central parts of the Hells Gate domain (fig. 6). 

The central caldera complex of the southwest Nevada 

volcanic field (fig. 6) roughly straddles the boundary between 

the Death Valley region and the Northern Basin and Range 

block. During the Hells Gate-Owlshead tectonic stage, the 

northeastern part of this volcanic field, outside the Death Valley region, was mixed in character, and included, most notably, 

a basalt-trachyte-comendite association, reflecting the 

differing tectonic setting to the north, outside of the region. 

Only minor sedimentary strata are interbedded with the 

pre-≈12 Ma volcanic units within the southwest Nevada 

volcanic field. The “green conglomerate” of Reynolds (1969; 

1974) underlies Hells Gate-age eruptive units of this volcanic 

field near its southwestern limit, but also extends beyond the 

volcanic field southeast of there.

The Hells Gate assemblage is up to ten times thicker in 

the Titus Canyon Basin than in the Ubehebe Basin. Whereas 

the base-age of the Hells Gate assemblage is uniform throughout its range, Hells Gate strata younger than ≈15 Ma are 

absent in the southwestern part of the Ubehebe Basin, the 

area that is the Cottonwood Mountains (CM, figs. 6 and 7). 

The eruptive units of the southwest Nevada volcanic field are 

largely contained within the Titus Canyon Basin, suggesting 

that the Titus Canyon fault system formed a topographic barrier. Only small volumes of the largest ash-flow eruptive units 

overtopped this barrier to be deposited in the Ubehebe Basin. 

The character of Hells Gate sedimentary rocks differs 

strongly between the Titus Canyon and Ubehebe Basins, 

despite that they were directly adjacent. Those of the Ubehebe 

Basin are mainly pebbly fluvial red sandstones in which the 

sand was derived from mixed sources, including Tertiary 

volcanic rocks, Neoproterozoic and Paleozoic quartzites and 

chert, and Mesozoic granitoids. The pebbles are derived from 

the same sources; however, Tertiary volcaniclastic material is 

mainly in the sand-size fraction. These strata are similar to the 

redbeds that commonly form the uppermost part of the Titus 

Canyon assemblage, but contain different volcanic interbeds. 

In contrast, the sedimentary rocks interbedded with the Hells 

Gate-age volcanic units of the Titus Canyon Basin are mainly 

yellowish-tan, fine-grained, and typically so tuffaceous that 

they verge on being waterlain tuffs regardless of depositional 

environment. Hells Gate strata of the Titus Canyon Basin that 

are beyond the limit of the southwest Nevada volcanic field, 

or that predate the onset of local volcanism (at ≈15 Ma; for 

example, the “green conglomerate”) are similar in lithologic 

character to those of the Ubehebe Basin.

Fossil wood is not uncommon in the Hells Gate assemblage, and in ≈14 Ma strata (S. Minor, USGS, Denver, oral 

commun., 2000) in one locale in the northwestern part of the 

Death Valley region, it has been identified as metasequoia 

(Walker, 1936), indicating that the region was not a desert in 

this interval. 

Syn-Basin and Range Sequence 

Active basin-range tectonism migrated westward across 

the Death Valley region in four stages, each recorded by its 

own assemblage of basin-fill strata (fig. 4). Cenozoic sections 

of the region typically consist of more than one of these 

assemblages, resulting in stacked deposits from different 

tectonic stages. Most commonly, provenance is abruptly more 

proximal upsection across assemblage boundaries, reflecting 

progressive tectonic fragmentation of drainage basins during 

basin-range tectonism.

Cenozoic basin fills in the eastern part of the Death 

Valley region consists mainly of the Owlshead and Navadu 

assemblages, locally capped by the Furnace Creek assemblage. 

In contrast, basin fills in the western part of the region consist 

mainly of the Furnace Creek and Badwater assemblages, 

locally underlain by the Navadu assemblage (figs. 6, 8, 9, and 

10). Throughout the region, the only area with all four assemblages is the central Death Valley rhombochasm (CDVR; 

fig. 2). 

Clasts of proximal moderate- to high-grade metamorphic 

rocks derived from local core complexes first appear in the 

stratigraphic record in the syn-basin-range sequence, and 

they are almost entirely restricted to near-source depocenters. 

These clasts record the unroofing of adjacent detachment fault 

footwalls. The timing of their appearance in the stratigraphic 

record agrees well with the timing of tectonic denudation, 

uplift and exposure that has been interpreted from radiometric 

uplift ages for the adjacent core complexes (Holm and others, 

1992; Hoisch and Simpson, 1993; Applegate and Hodges, 

1995; Hoisch and others, 1997). 
Cenozoic Stratigraphy and Structure 15

NDVF

TCFS

RCF

RCF

SPT

SR

LVVSZ

PT

OHD

KPT

NAD

WWF

KB

PB

SDVF

GARLOCK FAULT

SF

SHF

PRD

CT

SPOTTED R. THRUST

NE boundary of Death 

 Valley region

KRD

 

Syn-basin-range sedimentary rocks

 (Owlshead assemblage)

Pre-basin-range sedimentary rocks

 (Hells Gate assemblage)

Caldera

Depositional outlines

Strike-slip fault (active)

Strike-slip fault (slip restored)

Detachment fault

Normal fault

Marble thrust

Lemoigne thrust

600-meter Stirling Quartzite (Zs) isopach

150-meter Zabriskie Quartzite (ez) isopach

Noonday Dolomite pinchout

MARBLE THRUSTMARBLE THRUST

TITUS

 CANYON

 BASIN

UBEHEBE

 BASIN

Area of 

Owlshead

volcanic

field

EXPLANATION

SAD

Figure 7. Structural pattern of the Hells Gate-Owlshead tectonic stage palinspastically restored to correct for 

post-≈12-Ma extension, and for strike-slip offsets across the southern Death Valley fault (SDVF), Sheephead fault 

(SHF), northern Death Valley fault (NDVF), and Stateline fault system (SF). Other Cenozoic features shown include the 

Titus Canyon fault system (TCFS), the two realigned segments of the Raven Canyon fault system (RCF), the Point of 

Rocks detachment fault (PRD), the Opera House detachment fault (OHD); the north and south segments of Amargosa 

detachment fault (NAD and SAD); and the Kingston Range detachment fault (KRD). Palinspastically restored features 

include the Marble and LeMoigne Thrust faults, isopachs of the Stirling Quartzite (Zs) and Zabriskie Quartzite (_z), 

the pinchout of the Noonday Dolomite, and the correlated segments of the Schwaub Peak Thrust = SPT; Specter 

Range Thrust =SR, Panamint Thrust = PT; Cleary Thrust = CT; Kwichup Peak Thrust = KPT. Also shown are the Las 

Vegas Valley shear zone (LVVSZ) and the Garlock fault, which were active in the Hells Gate-Owlshead tectonic 

stage. Some features are not corrected for post-≈12 Ma strain. For example, the Wingate Wash fault (WWF) of 

the Owlshead Mountains is probably rotated at least 30o clockwise, because of post-≈12-Ma oroflexural bending 

adjacent to the Garlock fault. Likewise, dextral strike-slip strain has probably rotated the Garlock fault clockwise 

since ≈12 Ma, especially the easternmost part. Also shown are the Pahrump and Kingston Basins (PB and KB).
16 Cenozoic Tectonic Reorganizations of the Death Valley Region, Southeast California and Southwest Nevada

Owlshead Assemblage of the Hells GateOwlshead Tectonic Stage

The Owlshead assemblage is found throughout the eastern and central parts of the Death Valley region (fig. 6), and 

records the first stage of basin-range extension. In the easternmost part, it includes nearly all of the syntectonic strata found 

around the perimeter of the Pahrump Basin (PB) and in the 

Black Butte pressure ridge (BB) in southern part of this basin. 

It also includes Member 1 and most of the “pre-basinal” rocks 

(plate 1; Friedmann, 1999; Friedmann and others,1996) of 

the Kingston Basin (KB; fig. 6), a Hells Gate-Owlshead stage 

basin that covered the current areas of the Shadow Valley Basin 

and the Kingston Range. Paleocanyon fills of distally (and 

easterly) derived conglomerate are locally present at the base 

of the “pre-basinal” section in the Shadow Valley basin, and 

these strata alone are pre-basin-range. The remaining “prebasinal” strata of the Kingston Basin locally contain small 

(≈10 m diameter) ballistic masses of rock-avalanche breccia 

derived from the ranges that surround the basin; thus, these 

strata are actually syn-basin-range, and they are part of the 

Owlshead assemblage. 

In the northwestern part of its range, the Owlshead 

assemblage includes all of the pre-≈12 Ma strata of the central Death Valley rhombochasm. In the northern part of the 

rhombochasm, this consists of the lower (pre-≈12 Ma) part of 

the Eagle Mountain Formation at Eagle Mountain (EM, fig. 6; 

Niemi and others, 2001) and the rocks of Billie Mine (BM; 

fig. 6; Cemen, 1983; Wright and others, 1999). In the southern 

part of the rhombochasm, it consists of pre-≈12 Ma andesites 

and interbedded sedimentary rocks (for example, the andesite of 

Ashford Mill at Virgin Canyon; VC; fig. 6 and plate 1; Snow 

and Lux, 1999; Wright and Troxel, 1984). In the western part 

of the rhombochasm, it consists of the pre-≈12 Ma rocks of the 

Trail Canyon sequence (on the eastern flank of the Panamint 

Range; McKenna and Hodges, 1990). North of the rhombochasm, it includes the Kelley’s Well Limestone and overlying 

Bat Mountain Formation of the southern Funeral Mountains 

(SFM, fig. 6; plate 1; Cemen and others, 1999). 

In the southwestern part of its range, the Owlshead 

assemblage (fig. 6) includes all of the syntectonic strata of the 

northern and central Owlshead Mountains (OM; fig. 6; Wagner 

and others, 1988; Luckow and others, 2005). Correlative rocks 

are found in the southern parts of the Owlshead Mountains 

and adjacent Slate Range (SR; fig. 6); however, in these areas, 

the Owlshead strata are unconformably overlain by post-≈12 

Ma (both Navadu and Furnace Creek assemblage) syntectonic 

strata.

Owlshead strata overlie pre-Tertiary rocks, except locally 

where paleocanyon fills of Titus Canyon strata are present 

under them, as discussed above. Unlike the Hells Gate assemblage, the Owlshead deposits are strongly disconformable with 

everything they overlie. The base of the Owlshead assemblage 

is perhaps as old as ≈16 Ma in the Pahrump Basin, younging 

westward to a minimum of ≈14 to ≈14.5 Ma in the Owlshead 

Mountains (Luckow and others, 2005; and see plate 1) and in 

the central Death Valley rhombochasm (Wright and others, 

1991). Thus, the onset of basin-range extension began in the 

easternmost part of the region and migrated westward with 

time, within the Hells Gate-Owlshead tectonic stage.

Basins that accumulated Owlshead assemblage fill 

include (fig. 6): (1) the Pahrump Basin (PB), (2) the Kingston Basin (KB)—the supradetachment basin of the Kingston 

Range detachment fault (KRF) in the form it had from ≈15 to 

≈12.5 Ma (figs. 6 and 7), (3) the half-graben downthrown on 

the Wingate Wash fault (WWF), and adjacent smaller basin(s) 

in the central and southern Owlshead Mountains (OM); and 

(4) the supradetachment basins of the Amargosa (north and 

south segments; NAD and SAD), Opera House (OHD), and 

Point of Rocks detachment faults (PRD; fig. 6). If the master 

faults of all of these basins are viewed as a regional system of 

faults, the overall pattern is one of fanning open to the south 

(fig. 6). This fanning pattern is reflected not only in the overall 

geometry, but also in the fact that the combined throws of the 

master faults of these basins diminishes progressively to the 

north. The northward termination of this fan-like arrangement 

of faults is near the apparent northwest terminus of the Las 

Vegas Valley shear zone (LVVSZ; figs. 3 and 6). The abundance of rock-avalanche breccias in the Owlshead assemblage 

increases to the south across the region, which is consistent 

with southward-increasing extension. 

The geometry of the Owlshead-stage basins has been 

strongly modified by post-≈12 Ma extension and strike-slip 

offset. Palinspastic restoration for that later deformation 

simplifies the fan-like pattern of faulting (compare figs. 6 and 

7). When offset segments of Mesozoic thrust faults and other 

pre-Cenozoic piercing points are rejoined across the major 

strike-slip faults (as was done to create fig. 7), the (1) Point of 

Rocks and Opera House detachment faults (PRD and OHD), 

the (2 and 3) northern and southern parts of the Amargosa 

detachment fault (NAD and SAD), and the (4) Wingate Wash 

fault (WWF; figs. 6 and 7) all become roughly aligned across 

the northern Death Valley (NDVF), Stateline (SF), Sheephead (SHF), and southern Death Valley (SDVF; figs. 6 and 

7) strike-slip faults. Whereas most of the offset across these 

major strike-slip faults postdates ≈12 Ma, these faults may 

have existed as structural discontinuities before then (Cemen 

and others, 1999). Moreover, the northern and southern Death 

Valley faults were demonstrably active in the Hells Gate-Owlshead stage, as discussed above.

Several large low-angle structures are exposed along 

the deeply eroded northeastern scarp of the Pahrump Basin 

against the Spring Mountains, and these have been interpreted 

by some workers as erosional fragments of a basin-bounding 

low-angle normal (detachment) fault (Wernicke and others, 

1989). However, in recent geologic mapping (Page and others, 

2005), these structures have been interpreted as landslide 

slip surfaces at the bases of giant Toreva blocks; hence, it is 

unclear if Pahrump Valley is a supradetachment basin or not. 

In contrast, all of the other basins with Owlshead assemblage 

basin fill are clearly supradetachment basins, with the possible 

exception of the Wingate wash basin. The Wingate Wash fault 
Cenozoic Stratigraphy and Structure 17

(WWF; fig. 6) dips ≈40o at the surface, and seismic data have 

been interpreted as indicating that it rapidly flattens at depth 

(Wagner, 1988); hence, it could be interpreted as a detachment 

fault, but has not been interpreted that way by most workers.

The eruptive units of the Owlshead volcanic field have 

yielded argon dates ranging from 14.5 to 12.1 Ma (Wagner, 

1988; Fowler and Calzia, 1999; Friedmann, 1999; R. Fleck, 

USGS, unpub. data, about 1985) and currently occupy an 

east-west belt across the southernmost part of the Death 

Valley region. When palinspastically restored, this volcanic 

field has no obvious orientation (fig. 7). Compositions range 

from basalt to rhyolite, but andesitic lavas and related, mostly 

laharic breccias predominate. These volcanic rocks typically 

are interbedded with sedimentary strata, most conspicuously 

rock-avalanche megabreccias. To the north, in that part of the 

Owlshead domain that incurred lesser extension and that lies 

beyond the volcanic field, sedimentary strata predominate, 

breccias are sparse, and volcanic rocks are limited to interbeds 

of distal tuffs. 

As well as breccias, the sedimentary strata of the Owlshead 

assemblage include fluvial sandstones and conglomerates, 

lacustrine claystones and freshwater limestones, and alluvial 

conglomerates. The sandstones and the sandy matrices of the 

conglomerates typically are volcaniclastic. The pre-≈12 Ma 

alluvial conglomerates of the Owlshead assemblage are notable in that they appear to have been deposited in a significantly 

wetter climate than the post-12 Ma alluvial conglomerates of 

the Death Valley region, which are typical desert alluvium. In 

the pre-12 Ma alluvial deposits, clasts are more rounded, there 

is a higher proportion of matrix, and the matrices are rich in 

sticky (probably kaolinitic) clays like those that form in the 

soils of non-arid climates.

The ≈12.5 to ≈11.5 Ma Tectonic Reorganization

During the ≈12.5 to ≈11.5 Ma tectonic reorganization, 

the locus of basin-range tectonism shifted westward from 

being centered in the eastern part of the Death Valley region 

to being centered in the central part (figs. 4, 6 and 8). The new 

belt of basin-range extension, of the Navadu tectonic stage, 

overlapped that of the Hells Gate-Owlshead stage (compare 

figs. 6 and 8). Thus, some existing basins were abandoned in 

the wake of the abrupt westward migration, others remained 

active—in modified form—through the tectonic reorganization, 

and several new basins formed westward of the pre-≈12 Ma 

belt of basin-range tectonism of the Hells Gate-Owlshead 

stage.

Basin-range extension ceased at ≈12 Ma in the northern 

and central parts of the Owlshead Mountains (OM) and in all 

but the westernmost part of the Pahrump Basin (PB; compare 

figs. 6 and 8). Subsequently, these abandoned basins became 

sites of post-basin-range deposition. Additionally, the north 

half of the Kingston Basin was uplifted near the end of the 

Owlshead tectonic stage, at least partly because of emplacement of the large ≈12.5 Ma granite at Kingston Peak pluton, 

which may have “pinned” the northern part of the Kingston 

Range detachment fault (Davis and others, 1993; KRD; fig. 6). 

Subsequent extension and deposition in the area of the Kingston 

Range was minimal (compare figs. 6 and 8), but transtensional 

strain along northeast-trending oblique-slip faults did occur in 

this area during the ensuing Navadu tectonic stage. The part 

of the Kingston Range detachment fault that lies south of the 

Kingston Peak pluton continued to be active after ≈12 Ma, and 

the second generation (Navadu-stage) supradetachment basin 

over the southern part of this fault is known as the Shadow 

Valley Basin (SVB; fig. 8; Friedmann, 1999).

In much of the Shadow Valley Basin, the unconformity 

separating the Owlshead and Navadu assemblages is directly 

overlain by alluvial conglomerates containing a late tuff of the 

Owlshead volcanic field dated at 12.5 Ma (40Ar/39Ar, sanidine; 

Dan Miggins, USGS, unpub. data, about 2005) at or near 

the base. In the southern part of the Cottonwood Mountains, 

in the western part of the region, the correlative unconformity—between the Hells Gate and Navadu assemblages, in 

this case—is directly overlain by ash-fall tuffs (Snow and Lux, 

1999) having similar argon ages and petrographic character as 

the major tuffs of the Timber Mountain Group (dated at 11.6 

and 11.45 Ma; Sawyer and others, 1994). Thus, the diachronous unconformity that records this tectonic reorganization 

formed over an interval of about 1 million years—between 

≈12.5 and ≈11.5 Ma.

The local presence of a late tuff of the Owlshead tectonic 

stage in the basal strata of the Navadu assemblage, discussed 

above, is one of only two such instances. Because of the 

diachronous nature of the boundaries between the four 

syn-basin-range assemblages, it was possible for a volcanic 

unit to be erupted within the depositional area of one assemblage and to flow or fall distally into the depositional area of 

another assemblage during a tectonic reorganization. The other 

example of this, as discussed below, involves the ≈3.2 Ma 

tuff of Mesquite springs, which is a Furnace Creek unit, but 

is variously found in the uppermost part of the Furnace Creek 

assemblage or the basalmost part of the Badwater assemblage. 

In all other cases we know of, the volcanic rocks of each 

assemblage are distinct, and are key to discriminating them.

Navadu Assemblage and Tectonic Stage 

The Navadu assemblage includes the Navadu Formation 

of the Cottonwood Mountains (the fill of the Navadu Basin 

(NB)—the supradetachment basin of the Harrisburg fault (HD; 

fig. 8; Snow and Lux, 1999). In the central part of the central 

Death Valley rhombochasm (CDVR; fig. 8), the Navadu section consists of a sparsely exposed basal sedimentary section, 

overlain by a thick stack of volcanic rocks, including: the 

≈11 Sheephead Andesite, the ≈10.5 Ma Rhodes Tuff, and the 

lavas and related tuffs of the ≈10 to ≈7.5 Ma Shoshone Volcanics 

(Wright and Troxel, 1984). Coming away from this volcanic 

locus (the central Death Valley volcanic field), correlative 

volcanic rocks thin and are increasingly interbedded with 
18 Cenozoic Tectonic Reorganizations of the Death Valley Region, Southeast California and Southwest Nevada

118° 117° 116°

37°

36°

Navadu stage

Mainly ≈11.5 to ≈7 million years

DSB

SEB

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NDVF

FMD

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MCB

OM

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DOVE

SPRING

FORMATION

SF

HD

SIERRA NEVADA

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KRD

CAV

PB

White Mountains

PANAMINT

RANGE

Spring Mountains

Modern range-basin outlines

Later-formed boundaries

Detachment fault

Strike-slip fault

Normal fault

Caldera 

Base modified from U.S. Geological Survey 

1:100,000 scale map.

Study

area

NV

CA

EXPLANATION

Syn-basin-range sedimentary rocks

Areas of active uplift

Felsic volcanic rocks

Felsic intrusions 

Intermediate volcanic rocks

Mafic volcanic rocks

Mafic intrusion

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Figure 8. Present-day distribution of the ≈12-to-≈7-Ma syn-basin-range Navadu assemblage, and the major 

faults known to be active during the Navadu tectonic stage. Also shown are: (1) the distribution of Navadu-age 

volcanic rocks and intrusions, and (2) the distribution of the Dove Spring Formation, at the south end of Indian 

Wells Valley (IWV). Navadu-stage basins include Deep Springs Basin (DSB); an unnamed basin encompassing 

the area that includes Saline Valley, Saline Range, and Eureka Valley (SEB); Navadu Basin (NVB); Military Canyon 

Basin (MCB), Shadow Valley Basin (SVB), and the central Death Valley rhombochasm (CDVR). Active faults of this 

stage include Fluorspar Canyon-Bullfrog Hills detachment fault (FBD), Funeral Mountains detachment fault (FMD), 

Harrisburg detachment fault (HD), Point of Rocks detachment fault (PRD), Opera House detachment fault (OHD), 

northern and southern segments of Amargosa detachment fault (NAD and SAD); and Kingston Peak detachment 

(KRD). 
Cenozoic Stratigraphy and Structure 19

sedimentary strata. In the northwestern part of the central 

Death Valley rhombochasm, this section of interbedded 

volcanic and sedimentary strata has been named the Artist 

Drive Formation (McAllister, 1970; Wright and others, 1999). 

The equivalent section along the eastern front of the Panamint Range, at the western margin of the central Death Valley 

rhombochasm (figs. 3 and 8), is the younger (post-≈12 Ma) 

part of the Trail Canyon volcanic sequence (McKenna and 

Hodges, 1990). 

East of Death Valley, in the Shadow Valley Basin 

(SVB; fig. 8), the Navadu assemblage consists of members II 

through IV of Friedmann (1999) in the east, and the “China 

Ranch beds” in the west (Wright and others, 1991; Prave and 

McMackin, 1999). South of Death Valley, on the southern 

flank of the Owlshead Mountains, the Navadu assemblage 

has been named the Military Canyon Formation, the fill of the 

Military Canyon Basin (MCB, fig. 8; Brady, 1986; Brady and 

Troxel, 1999). And to the north of Death Valley, equivalent 

sections consist largely of the younger (post-≈12 Ma) volcanic 

rocks of the southwest Nevada volcanic field, including the 

≈11.7 to 11.4 Ma units of the Timber Mountain Group and 

numerous overlying eruptive units ranging in age from ≈11.3 

to ≈7 Ma (for example, see plate 1, section I; Sawyer and others, 

1994). In the southwest corner of the Death Valley region, in 

southern Indian Wells Valley (IWV; fig. 8), the Navadu assemblage is represented by the Dove Spring Formation, which 

has been dated at ≈13 to ≈8 Ma (K-Ar; Monastero and others, 

2002). 

The overall structural pattern of faulting and transtensional 

deformation in the Navadu tectonic stage is a radical departure 

from the tectonic pattern of the preceding Owlshead stage 

(compare figs. 6 and 8). The simple fanning pattern of basinrange extension in the Hells Gate-Owlshead tectonic stage was 

superceded by a complex structural pattern dominated by: 

(1) rapid slip along major strike-slip faults, including the 

Stateline, northern Death Valley, Sheephead, and southern 

Death Valley faults (SF, NDVF, SHF, and SDVF; compare 

figs. 6 and 8), and (2) large-scale tectonic denudation along 

detachment faults that strongly extended the structural blocks 

between the major strike-slip faults.

In the far western part of the Death Valley region, basinrange tectonism began at the beginning of the Navadu tectonic 

stage, but the major extension in this area came later, in the 

Furnace Creek and especially the Badwater tectonic stages 

(figs. 8, 9, and 10). Navadu-stage tectonism west of the Panamint Range appears to have been diffuse and poorly defined. 

Early Navadu assemblage (≈12 Ma) sedimentary rocks of 

syntectonic character have been documented in the Deep 

Springs Basin (DSB; fig. 8) and in the Saline-Eureka Valleys 

area (SEB; fig. 8), to the southeast (Blakely and McKee, 1985; 

Reheis and Sawyer, 1997). Moreover, apatite fission-track and 

U-Th/He data show that rapid exhumation and eastward tilting 

of the White Mountains (northwest corner of figs. 2 and 8) 

began at ≈12 Ma (Stockli and others, 2003), at the beginning 

of the Navadu tectonic stage. The last-mentioned evidence 

suggests that a more extensive pattern of Navadu-stage 

basin-range extension was present west of the Panamint Range 

than is shown (fig. 8); however, existing data do not permit the 

drawing of a more complete picture. 

More than a dozen different basins actively subsided in 

the ≈12.5 to ≈7 Ma Navadu stage in the central part of the 

Death Valley region (see fig. 8). Basins formed by Owlsheadstage tectonism that continued to be active in the Navadu 

stage—in modified form—include: (1) the far western part of 

the Pahrump Basin (PB), (2) the Shadow Valley Basin (SVB), 

(3) the central Death Valley rhombochasm, which in this stage 

is called the Artist Drive Basin, and (4) the supradetachment 

basins of the Opera House (OHD) and Point of Rocks (PRD) 

detachment faults (fig. 8). 

Several new basins formed at ≈12 Ma to the north and 

northwest of the central Death Valley rhombochasm (CDVR; 

compare figs. 6 and 8) besides those discussed above. For 

example, three new detachment faults formed early in the 

Navadu tectonic stage: (1) the Fluorspar Canyon-Bullfrog 

Hills fault (FBD), (2) the Boundary Canyon-Keane Wonder 

fault (aka, Funeral Mountains fault; FMD), and (3) the Harrisburg (HD) fault. A Navadu-stage supradetachment basin 

formed over each of these faults. Navadu-stage basins that 

formed at roughly the same time (≈12 Ma), and that were 

unrelated to detachment faulting include (from north to south): 

the Crater Flat Basin; (CFB; Fridrich, 1999; Fridrich and 

others, 1999); Chicago Valley Basin (CVB), California Valley 

Basin (CAV), and Military Canyon Basin (MCB; fig. 8).

The magnitude of extension and strike-slip strain of the 

Navadu tectonic stage was equal to, or greater than, that of the 

other three stages of basin-range tectonism combined. Partly, 

this reflects the longer interval of the Navadu stage (see fig. 4). 

More importantly, the rate of basin-range tectonism in the 

Death Valley region peaked in the Navadu interval. 

As per the basin-range tectonism of the Hells Gate-Owlshead 

stage, there was a discernible pattern of slow, continuous 

monotonic evolution within the Navadu tectonic stage. Specifically, the locus of strongest syndepositional faulting and tilting 

slowly migrated westward within many individual basins during this stage, as documented in the Crater Flat Basin (Fridrich 

and others, 1999) and across the supradetachment basin of the 

Fluorspar Canyon-Bullfrog Hills fault (Fridrich, 1999). In the 

central Death Valley rhombochasm, Navadu strata in the east 

half of the basin show evidence of strong growth faulting and 

fanning of dips from ≈12 to ≈10 Ma, followed by deposition 

lacking evident coeval deformation from ≈10 to ≈7 Ma. In 

contrast, syndepositional faulting and tilting in the west half of 

basin, between ≈10 and ≈7 Ma, was equal to, or greater than, 

that from ≈12 to ≈10 Ma.

Volcanism associated with the Navadu tectonic stage 

was “quasi-bimodal” (fig. 4), meaning that it was comprised 

mainly of mafic and silicic magmas erupted with lesser volumes of andesites (figs. 4 and 8). By about 10 Ma, andesites 

had disappeared, and thus, late-stage Navadu volcanism was 

truly bimodal, and was dominated by felsic compositions. 

Volcanism of the Navadu stage occurred mainly in 

two loci: the central Death Valley volcanic field, in the 
20 Cenozoic Tectonic Reorganizations of the Death Valley Region, Southeast California and Southwest Nevada

south-central part of the region, and in the (post-≈12 Ma) 

southwest Nevada volcanic field, near the northern boundary of the Death Valley region. The magma eruption rate was 

significantly greater during the Navadu stage than in the Hells 

Gate-Owlshead stage, and a major hiatus separated the volcanic pulses associated with these two stages. In the southwest 

Nevada volcanic field, this hiatus extended from the end of the 

Paintbrush Group resurgent cauldron cycle, at ≈12.5 Ma, to 

the beginning of the Timber Mountain Group cycle, at ≈11.7 

Ma (Sawyer, 1994; Fridrich and others, 2007). In the southern 

part of the region, the hiatus separates the end of activity in the 

Owlshead volcanic field, at ≈12.1 Ma, and the beginning of 

activity in the central Death Valley volcanic field, at ≈11 Ma 

(this study, unpub. data).

Throughout the region, this volcanic hiatus is recorded by 

deposition of a basal Navadu section that lacks juvenile volcanic 

strata. Notably, this section contains a greater abundance of 

rock-avalanche megabreccias and other coarse syntectonic 

deposits than any other part of the Cenozoic section, and typically has strongly fanning dips within it. These features are 

consistent with a hypothesis, proposed by Gans and Bohrson 

(1998), that this volcanic hiatus was a consequence of an 

exceptionally strong tectonic pulse that resulted in stagnation 

of magma at deep crustal levels.

Volcanic rocks dominate the Navadu section in several 

parts of the region, particularly the northern part, within a 

wide perimeter around the central caldera complex of the 

southwest Nevada volcanic field (fig. 8). They also dominate 

in the area of the central Death Valley volcanic field, which 

covered the whole central part of the central Death Valley 

rhombochasm, and extended east of there, across the Resting 

Spring Range and into the Chicago Valley Basin (CVB; fig. 8). 

The high rate of Navadu-stage volcanism, in combination with 

the fact that much of this volcanism was pyroclastic, resulted 

in the sedimentary rocks of the Navadu assemblage being 

exceptionally tuffaceous throughout the region, regardless of 

deposition environment.

The character of the sedimentary rocks of the Navadu 

assemblage is distinct in other ways from that of the preceding 

(pre-≈12 Ma) assemblages. For example, alluvial conglomerates 

comprise ≤1 percent of the pre-basin-range sequence and 

≤5 percent of the Owlshead assemblage; whereas roughly 

20 percent of the sedimentary budget in the Navadu assemblage is alluvial. Like the modern alluvium of the Death Valley 

region, Navadu-stage alluvium shows only minor rounding 

of clasts and is largely clast supported. Instead of containing 

kaolinitic clays, the matrices of Navadu alluvium are typically 

sandy and where they are clayey, the clay is illitic, is probably 

derived from alteration of volcanic glass, and appears to be 

largely diagenetic rather than primary. Relative to Hells GateOwlshead strata, Navadu strata have much less freshwater 

limestone and more gypsum in lacustrine deposits, as well as a 

lower abundance of fossil wood. Moreover, in this study, only 

desert oasis species of petrified wood—mainly palms—were 

found in Navadu strata. 

The abrupt change to drier-climate sediments at ≈12 Ma 

may be related to the formation of a rain shadow caused by the 

uplift of the White-Inyo Mountains (Stockli and others, 2003). 

Stockli and others’ radiometric uplift data may, thus, date the 

initial formation of the Sierra Nevada uplift. If so, this major 

uplift evidently had its eastern front at the western margin of 

Saline Valley in the Navadu stage. However, many workers 

have tried to date the initial uplift of the Sierra Nevada block, 

and the different lines of evidence that have been studied do 

not converge well (see a review by Phillips, 2009).

The ≈6.5 Ma Tectonic Reorganization 

During the tectonic reorganization between the Navadu 

and Furnace Creek stages, the belt of active basin-range tectonism in the Death Valley region abruptly shifted westward, 

for the second time (compare figs. 8 and 9). In the process, 

the supradetachment basins of all seven of the detachment 

faults of the Navadu tectonic stage were abandoned: Kingston 

Range (KRD), Fluorspar Canyon-Bullfrog Hills (FBD), Point 

of Rocks (PRD), Opera House (OHD), Funeral Mountains 

(FMD), Harrisburg (HD), and Amargosa (NAD and SAD 

faults as shown on figure 8. The supradetachment basins of 

these faults then either became sites of post-basin-range deposition, or else they were crosscut by the bounding faults of 

superimposed Furnace Creek-stage basins and ranges.

Detachment faulting did not, however, end in the ≈6.5 Ma 

tectonic reorganization because two new detachment faults 

formed at the beginning of the Furnace Creek stage. These are 

the Scotty’s Castle fault (SCD, fig. 9; Oakes, 1977), located 

immediately northeast of the northern Death Valley fault in the 

area of Scotty’s Castle, and the Emigrant fault of the Panamint 

Mountains (ED; fig. 9), which crosscut the abandoned Harrisburg detachment fault (HD; fig. 8). 

In the central Death Valley rhombochasm, the timing of 

the tectonic reorganization between the Navadu and Furnace 

Creek stages is bracketed between the last-erupted, ≈7.5 Ma 

basalt flows that form the top of the Shoshone volcanics and 

the first erupted units of the Greenwater volcanics—dacite 

flows, which have yielded dates ranging from 6.2 to 5.9 Ma 

(Fleck, 1970; unpub. data, this study). Other constraints 

around the region are consistent with this. Whereas in this 

study it is assumed that the unconformity formed in this reorganization is diachronous like the others, existing data provide 

only this bracketing. 

Furnace Creek Assemblage and Tectonic Stage

In the central Death Valley rhombochasm, the Furnace 

Creek assemblage includes the Furnace Creek Formation 

(Wright and others, 1999)—the fill of the Furnace Creek Basin 

(FCB, fig. 9). This formation interfingers to the southeast with 

the Greenwater Volcanics, the collective term for Furnace 

Creek-stage eruptive units of the central Death Valley volcanic 

field. To the west and southwest in the rhombochasm, in 
Cenozoic Stratigraphy and Structure 21

the Badwater Basin (BB; fig. 9), the equivalent section has 

been named the Copper Canyon Formation (Holm and others, 1994). And in the southern part of the rhombochasm, in 

an array of parallel north-trending half-grabens, the Furnace 

Creek assemblage has been mapped as the Funeral Formation 

(fig. 9; Wright and Troxel, 1984). This is a miscorrelation 

because the Funeral Formation is part of the Badwater assemblage in its type locality (the Furnace Creek Basin; McAllister, 

1970). 

Furnace Creek strata are found in numerous other areas 

to the west and northwest of the central Death Valley rhombochasm, including the Nova Basin (NB; fig. 9), where they 

constitute all but a relatively thin basal part of the Nova 

Formation, and in the Saline Range (SR; fig. 9), where all of 

the mafic lavas capping this range are part of this assemblage. 

The Furnace Creek assemblage also includes the stranded 

lavas and lesser interbedded deposits that cap the Last Chance 

Range (LCR; fig. 9), and most of the current mountain ranges 

that intervene between the Emigrant detachment fault (ED) of 

the Panamint Range and the Sierra Nevada (fig. 9). 

In the southern part of Owens Valley, the oldest known 

basin-fill deposits consist of lacustrine strata that directly 

underlie bimodal volcanic rocks dated at 5.3 to 6.0 Ma 

(Duffield and others, 1980). These deposits are the lower 

(pre-≈3 Ma) part of the Coso Formation and are part of the 

Furnace Creek assemblage. Owens Valley evidently formed 

in the late Pliocene (at the beginning of the Badwater tectonic 

stage; St. Amand and Roquemore, 1979), and the lower, 

Furnace Creek part of the Coso Formation was probably 

deposited in a broad shallow basin that extended between the 

Panamint Range and the Sierra Nevada range front (fig. 9). 

The structural framework in the Furnace Creek stage was 

complex within the central Death Valley rhombochasm, but 

relatively simple elsewhere in the region (fig. 9). Throughout 

the Navadu tectonic stage, the whole of the central Death Valley rhombochasm had been a single supradetachment basin, 

with only one major internal structure—the Sheephead fault 

(fig. 8). At the start of the Furnace Creek stage, numerous 

small nested basins formed within the rhombochasm (fig. 9), 

many of which were bounded by moderate-angle, strongly 

listric faults that cut across the freshly abandoned Amargosa 

detachment fault and, locally, the Sheephead fault (see Wright 

and Troxel, 1984). The largest of these nested basins was the 

Badwater Basin (BB), a half-graben bounded by the central 

Death Valley fault (CDVF; fig. 9), which formed at ≈7 Ma. 

The Badwater Basin formed near the western margin of the 

rhombochasm, such that only a small part of the Artist Drive 

Basin-fill lies to the west of it, on the eastern flank of the 

Panamint Range (compare figs. 8 and 9). The Furnace Creek 

half-graben (FCB) and the southern Death Valley graben 

formed along the bounding strike-slip faults of the same names, 

at the northeast and southwest margins of the rhombochasm. 

The Grand View strike-slip fault (GVF) formed in the central 

part of the rhombochasm at ≈7 Ma, and a narrow, shallow 

half-graben developed on the southwest side of this structure. 

Further, an array of small parallel half-grabens formed that 

projected northward from the southern Death Valley Basin into 

the center of the rhombochasm. Similar structures are present within the eastern part of the Furnace Creek Basin (FCB). 

Within the central Death Valley rhombochasm, the locus of 

tectonic activity migrated progressively westward during the 

Furnace Creek tectonic stage. 

To the south of the rhombochasm, subsidence continued 

in the Military Canyon Basin through the Furnace Creek stage 

(MCB; figs. 8 and 9); but at a lower rate and over a smaller 

area than in the Navadu stage. Immediately to the northwest 

of the rhombochasm, along the northern Death Valley fault 

(NDVF), a strike-slip basin of the same name developed during the Furnace Creek stage. In the preceding Navadu stage, 

the area of this basin had been part of the Navadu Basin (NVB; 

fig. 8). Further north, across the northern Death Valley fault, a 

supradetachment basin formed over the Scotty’s Castle detachment fault (SCD; fig. 9) at the north end of the Grapevine 

Mountains (GM).

To the west, the areas that are now the Eureka Valley 

Basin, the Saline Range, and the Saline Valley Basin (EB, SR, 

and SB) were evidently occupied by a single basin between ≈6 

and ≈3 Ma (compare figs. 9 and 10; Burchfiel and others, 1987). 

The Saline Range uplift, which formed at ≈3 Ma, is capped 

by the same thick Furnace Creek-age and mainly volcanic 

basin-fill that underlies the younger Badwater strata in the two 

basins on either side of it (compare figs. 9 and 10; Blakely and 

McKee, 1985). Thus, the western part of the region shows the 

same pattern of progressive fragmentation of the landscape, 

during basin-range tectonism, as is found in the eastern 

and central parts of the region. Only the timing is different, 

reflecting the progressive westward migration of basin-range 

tectonism. 

Finally, the area extending from the Garlock fault northward to the south end of Saline Valley Basin (SVB), and from 

the Emigrant detachment fault (ED) to the Sierra Nevada may 

all have been one vast shallow basin in the Furnace Creek 

stage (fig. 9), as discussed above. Syntectonic deposits of this 

stage are thickest in the northeastern part of this area, which 

has been called the Nova Basin (NB; fig. 9); however, there 

are no known basin boundaries that predate ≈3 Ma within this 

whole area.

Volcanic rocks of the Furnace Creek stage are mainly 

basalts, with lesser but conspicuous associated felsic tuffs and 

lavas. In the central Death Valley volcanic field, the associated felsic rocks are biotite-rich dacites. This is the only 

discrete volcanic field of this tectonic stage. Throughout the 

major part of the region, from the Grapevine Mountains (GM) 

and Panamint Range westward, strongly basalt-dominated 

bimodal volcanic rocks are widely present, and gaps in 

continuity may largely be a function of younger cover or of 

erosion. In all of this area, the associated felsic rocks are 

mainly phenocryst-poor rhyolites. The major felsic eruptive 

unit of this broad area is a group of ≥6 closely related tuffs 

known collectively as the ≈3.2 Ma tuff of Mesquite Spring, 

which is found as an ash-fall tuff throughout much of the Death 
22 Cenozoic Tectonic Reorganizations of the Death Valley Region, Southeast California and Southwest Nevada

0

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Furnace Creek stage

Mainly ≈6 to ≈4.5 million years

SCD

Spring Mountains

NDVF

SF

SIERRA NEVADA

 EDF

GHG

GARLOCK FAULT

SDVF

FCB GVF 

CDVF 

PANAMINT RANGE

LCR

SR

SVB

EB

CFB

NB

BB

SDVB 

MCB

Base modified from U.S. Geological Survey 

1:100,000 scale map.

Study

area

NV

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EXPLANATION

Syn-basin-range 

 sedimentary rocks

Areas of active uplift

Mafic volcanic rocks

Modern range-basin outlines

Detachment fault

Strike-slip fault

Normal fault

Figure 9. Present-day distribution of the ≈7-to-≈3.5-Ma syn-basin-range Furnace Creek assemblage, the major 

faults known to be active, and the distribution and compositions of volcanic rocks erupted in the Furnace Creek 

stage. Major active faults include northern Death Valley-Furnace Creek fault (NDVF), central Death Valley fault 

(CDVF), southern Death Valley fault (SDVF), Scotty’s castle detachment fault (SCD), and Emigrant detachment fault 

(EDF). Labeled basins include Furnace Creek Basin (FCB), Badwater Basin (BB); and Greenwater half-graben (GHG), 

a narrow shallow basin downthrown on the mainly strike-slip, down-to-the-southwest, and small-offset Grand View 

fault (GVF). LCR is the current area of the Last Chance Range.
Cenozoic Stratigraphy and Structure 23

Valley region, and probably was sourced in the vicinity of 

Scotty’s Castle because it is most proximal in character there.

Small outliers of Furnace Creek-stage basalts are found 

in the northeasternmost part of the region, in and near the 

Crater Flat Basin (CFB; fig. 9). These rocks are part of a progressively waning stage of activity in the southwest Nevada 

volcanic field (Fridrich and others, 1999), which has continued 

even into the latter part of the Badwater tectonic stage. Strictly 

speaking, these last-mentioned basalts are post-basin-range.

Sedimentary rocks of the Furnace Creek assemblage 

include abundant alluvium, playa siltstones, and lesser rockavalanche breccias. Other rock types, such as fluvial conglomerates and ground-water discharge deposits, are present but 

are relatively rare. The alluvial deposits of the Furnace Creek 

assemblage are markedly less tuffaceous on average than 

those of the Navadu assemblage, evidently because the last 

voluminous eruptions of felsic ash in the region occurred at 

≈7.5 Ma, near the end of the Navadu tectonic stage. Whereas 

alluvial conglomerates constitute ≈20 percent of the sedimentary budget in the Navadu assemblage, they constitute nearly 

50 percent of the exposed Furnace Creek sedimentary strata. 

Moreover, gypsum became even more abundant in lacustrine 

deposits after ≈7 Ma, and freshwater limestone became less 

abundant. 

The ≈4.5 to ≈3 Ma Tectonic Reorganization

The third and final tectonic reorganization in the Death 

Valley region occurred between ≈4.5 and ≈3 Ma (fig. 4). The 

belt of basin-range tectonism changed little in this reorganization (compare figs. 9 and 10). Specifically, that part of the 

central Death Valley rhombochasm that lies east of the Badwater 

Basin was abandoned; otherwise, there was little change in the 

boundaries of the belt. However, activity was strongly concentrated in the eastern part of this belt before this reorganization, 

in the Furnace Creek tectonic stage, and has been more evenly 

distributed across this belt since ≈3 Ma, with the greatest focus 

of tectonism at the western margin.

 The timing of this most recent tectonic reorganization 

is best constrained in the Furnace Creek Basin, where the 

resultant unconformity closely underlies a 4.5 Ma flow of the 

Funeral Basalt in the eastern part of the basin, and closely 

overlies the ≈3.2 Ma tuff of Mesquite Springs in the western 

part (Knott and others, 2008; Fridrich and others, in press). 

Other constraints in the region all fall within this range, with 

the majority near the younger end.

The major change during the ≈4.5-to-≈3-Ma tectonic 

reorganization was in tectonic style. Whereas the Furnace 

Creek (FCB) and southern Death Valley Basins SDVB; figs. 9 

and 10) both opened up via north-northeast—south-southwest 

extension during the Furnace Creek stage, these basins have 

undergone contraction in the same direction since ≈4 Ma. 

Several other areas in the region show a similar abrupt onset 

of contraction in this direction at ≈3 Ma, as discussed below. 

The most striking thing about the ≈4.5-to-≈3-Ma tectonic reorganization is that it ushered in the strain pattern of 

the ongoing Badwater tectonic stage—the pattern that exists 

today. If we could reverse the clock, it would be difficult to 

recognize the Death Valley region at 5 Ma; but by shortly after 

3 Ma, the present-day pattern of active faults, and the resultant 

pattern of rising ranges and subsiding basins had formed 

(compare figs. 9 and 10). 

In the ongoing Badwater stage, contraction in the NNESSW direction partly balances extension in the WNW-ESE 

direction, such that the magnitude of strike-slip strain may 

exceed that of extension for the first time since basin-range 

extension began in the region at ≈16 Ma. 

Badwater Assemblage and Tectonic Stage

In the area of the Furnace Creek paleobasin (FCB), the 

Badwater assemblage is named the Funeral Formation, which 

consists mainly of alluvium derived from the Paleozoic and 

Neoproterozoic sedimentary rocks of the adjacent Funeral 

Mountains (FM; fig. 10). Additionally, it includes the ≈4.5 Ma 

Funeral basalts, which locally interfinger with the basal part of 

the Funeral Formation and extend to the southeast. In the area 

of Copper Canyon (CC), on the east flank of the Badwater 

Basin (BB; fig. 10), the Funeral Formation consists dominantly of alluvium and landslide megabreccias derived from 

the 1.7 Ga basement rocks exposed in the adjacent Copper 

Canyon Turtleback (Drewes, 1963; Holm and others, 1994; 

Knott and others, 1999), the basin floor of the central Death 

Valley rhombochasm. 

Badwater strata have been described at two other sites in 

the Badwater Basin, one called Mushroom Rock (MR) 

and another adjacent to the Mormon Point turtleback (MP; 

fig. 10; Knott and others, 1999). Both are dominated by 

alluvial conglomerates. In the southern Death Valley Basin 

(SDVB; fig. 10), Badwater assemblage strata have been 

documented in two large pressure ridges: the Confidence Hills, 

where it has been called the Confidence Hills Formation (fig. 

10; Beratan and others, 1999), and the Noble Hills to the south, 

in which Brady (1986) mapped the Bad-water strata as “older 

Quaternary fan deposits.” 

In the Cottonwood Mountains (CM; fig. 10), the Badwater 

assemblage consists of two stacked lithologic units, named 

by Snow and White (1990) the “volcanics/marl” and “upper 

conglomerate,” in which the basal “marl” is a lacustrine calcareous tuffaceous deposit composed mainly of waterlaid tuff 

derived from the ≈3.2 Ma tuff of Mesquite Springs. Throughout most of the area of distribution of the Badwater assemblage 

(fig. 10), strata that are mapped as surficial deposits lie within 

the area of active tectonism; thus, they are technically part of 

this assemblage even though most are too young to yet record 

much tectonic information. The one exception to this is the 

Furnace Creek Basin, which became part of the post-basinrange domain at ≈2 Ma (Fridrich and others, in press).
24 Cenozoic Tectonic Reorganizations of the Death Valley Region, Southeast California and Southwest Nevada

118° 117° 116°

37°

36°

Badwater stage

Mainly ≈3 million years to present

GARLOCK FAULT

SIERRA NEVADA

Spring Mountains

NDVF

SS

RANGE

AVAWATZ

SF

OV

SR

EB

LCR

CM

PVF

KFH

RS

IWV

PVB

FM

TSS

MR RSR

SIB

OM

CC

MP

SAB

BB

WWF

SDVB

SB

FCB

SDVF

EXPLANATION

Modern range-basin outlines

Strike-slip fault

Normal fault

Thrust fault

Anticline

Syncline

Syn-basin-range 

 sedimentary rocks

 

Areas of active uplift

Felsic volcanic rocks

Mafic volcanic rocks

Base modified from U.S. Geological Survey 

1:100,000 scale map.

Study

area

NV

CA

0

0 50 KILOMETERS

20 50 MILES

20 

30

30

40

40

10

10

Figure 10. Present-day distribution of the ≈3.5 Ma-to-present syn-basin-range Badwater assemblage, the major faults known to be 

active, and the distribution and compositions of volcanic rocks erupted in the Badwater stage. Actively subsiding basins of this stage 

include Owens Valley (OV), Indian Wells Valley (IWV), Panamint Valley Basin (PVB), and the Badwater Basin (BB). The Saline Valley 

and Eureka Valley Basins (SB and EB) are separated by the Saline Range (SR), which is largely composed of basin-fill deposits of the 

Furnace Creek and Navadu Assemblages. The shallow Silurian Basin (SIB) is probably a foreland basin of sorts forming in front of the 

Avawatz Range thrust uplift. Other transpressional features of this ongoing stage include Texas Spring syncline (TSS) in the Furnace 

Creek Basin and pressure ridges at several locations: at the north end of the Resting Spring Range (RSR), at Rodger’s Spring (RS), and at 

Kit Fox Hills and Salt Springs (KFH and SS). Large pressure ridges in the northern and southern parts of the southern Death Valley Basin 

(SDVB) are called the Confidence Hills and the Noble Hills. Additionally, the Wingate Wash fault has been reactivated as a thrust fault 

in the Badwater stage and other major faults of the Owlshead Mountains (OM) all show evidence of recent oblique-thrust offset. Other 

labeled features include the Last Chance Range (LCR), Cottonwood Mountains (CM), Panamint Valley-Hunter Mountain fault (PVF), and 

Funeral Mountains (FM). Badwater Assemblage strata are exposed in the central Death Valley Basin at Mushroom Rock (MR), Copper 

Canyon (CC), and at Mormon Point (MP). Also shown is the Resting Spring Range (RSR).
Cenozoic Stratigraphy and Structure 25

The major basins of the ongoing Badwater tectonic stage 

are Death Valley (consisting of the southern Death Valley, 

Badwater, and northern Death Valley Basins), and the basins 

of Eureka (EB), Saline Valley (SVB), Panamint Valley (PVB), 

Searles (SB), and Owens/Indian Wells Valleys (OV/IWV; fig. 10). 

The bounding faults of these basins are mainly strike-slip 

or oblique-slip faults, rather than simple normal faults. One 

aspect of this modern framework that is underappreciated is 

the abundance of features that indicate recent northeast-southwest 

contraction. 

In the Furnace Creek Basin (FCB; fig. 9), all pre-Badwater-stage strata have been shortened, forming a large northwest-trending fold in the center of the basin named the Texas 

Spring syncline (TSS; fig. 10; McAllister, 1970). This fold 

was progressively buried upsection from ≈4.5 to ≈2-Ma by 

the Funeral Formation, which thickens from as little as ≈70 m 

on the flanks of this fold, to ≥300 m in the center (McAllister, 

1970; C. Fridrich, unpub. data, about 2005). 

The southern Death Valley Basin (SDVB; fig. 10), 

another Furnace Creek-stage graben, has also been downwarped into a syncline since ≈4 Ma, resulting in inward tilting 

of basin-fill (mainly alluvial) deposits on either side of this 

basin at dips that exceed depositional angles. The degree of 

tilting is greatest in pre-≈4 Ma strata, and decreases upsection 

through exposed Badwater-stage strata. In this basin, the rate 

and extent of downwarping have kept pace with the ongoing 

extensional subsidence of the adjacent Badwater Basin. Hence, 

southern Death Valley is still a depositional basin, despite the 

current contractional regime. The large anticlinal pressure 

ridges that extend down the axis of the southern Death Valley 

Basin (SDVB) are separated, in the middle of the basin, by a 

large releasing step-over in the southern Death Valley fault. 

Because of the contractional regime, this releasing step-over is 

a site of neither active contraction nor extension.

The southern Death Valley (SDVF) and Garlock faults 

(fig. 10) wrap around the northeastern and eastern front of the 

Avawatz Range and have acted as oblique thrust faults during 

the Badwater stage. This thrusting has uplifted the Avawatz 

Range (fig. 10), which is capped by a perched, but, as yet, little 

eroded syntectonic basin fill of pre-Owlshead age (≈19 Ma? 

at the top; Spencer, 1993). Thermochronometric uplift data 

for the Avawatz Range show that uplift began at ≈7 Ma, at 

the start of the Furnace Creek tectonic stage and has occurred 

primarily since ≈4 Ma (Reinert and others, 2003). These data 

are consistent with the stratigraphic evidence in the southern 

Death Valley Basin, where clasts of the pre-Tertiary rocks of 

the Avawatz Range abruptly appear in the stratigraphic record 

for the first time near the base of local Badwater strata. 

Also during the Badwater stage, a large concentric 

downwarp, a foreland basin of sorts, has developed in front 

(eastward and northeastward) of the Avawatz uplift, in the 

area of the Silurian Basin (SIB) and the southern part of the 

south Death Valley Basin (SDVB; fig. 10; Menges and others, 

2005, 2006; Miller and others, 2007). Contractional structures 

that are no older than Badwater age also have formed along 

the Stateline fault (SF) at the north end of the Resting Spring 

Range (RSR; Menges and others, 2003), and along the northern Death Valley fault (NDVF) at the Kit Fix Hills (KFH), at 

Salt Spring (SS), and at Rodger’s Spring (RS; fig. 10). Further, 

much of the active faulting within the Owlshead Mountains 

(OM) is transpressional (Menges and others, 2005, 2006; 

Miller and others, 2007; fig. 10). Little contraction occurred in 

any of these areas before ≈4 Ma; the rare examples known are 

localized at strongly constraining bends of major strike-slip 

faults.

The known contractional structures of the Badwater 

stage are all concentrated along the eastern margin of the belt 

of Badwater-stage tectonism in the region (fig. 10). If similar 

structures are present in the less-studied part of the region 

that lies to the west, they have not been identified. Thus, it is 

unclear from existing data if these structures reflect region-wide 

contraction in the north-northeast—south-southwest direction, 

or simply a boundary effect along the eastern margin of the 

current syn-basin-range domain. However, no features like 

these are known from any of the three preceding stages of 

basin-range tectonism.

As with the Navadu and Furnace Creek assemblages, the 

Badwater assemblage records evidence of within-stage structural evolution. For example, in the Badwater Basin, the basinbounding faulting has locally re-broken basinward (westward) 

with time, resulting in abandonment of some minor low-angle 

segments of the central Death Valley fault, specifically, those 

exhumed, strongly anti-listic fault surfaces known as the 

Death Valley “turtlebacks.” This has resulted in the stranding 

and relative uplift of early Badwater assemblage basin-fill that 

was deposited on these low-angle segments, such as in Copper 

Canyon (Knott and others, 1999).

Volcanism during the Badwater tectonic stage has been 

almost purely basaltic, except in Owens Valley, where it has 

been bimodal (Pakiser and others, 1964). Owens Valley also 

is the only locale where a sizeable volcanic field has formed 

in this ongoing stage. In the remainder of the region, volcanic 

fields of this stage are small and are limited to the earliest part 

of the Badwater stage, such as in the Furnace Creek Basin 

where the Funeral basalts were emplaced at ≈4.5 Ma (Wright 

and others, 1999). East of Owens Valley and since ≈3 Ma, 

Badwater-stage basalts have erupted mainly at small centers 

and clusters of centers producing cinder cones, maars, and tiny 

shield volcanoes. The rate of volcanism in the Badwater stage 

has been small relative to that of the previous stages of basinrange tectonism, except in Owens Valley (Pakiser and others, 

1964). 

Badwater assemblage strata extend the trends established 

by the preceding basin-range assemblages, with greater abundances of alluvium and of gypsum, and lesser abundances of 

fluvial deposits and freshwater limestone than in the Furnace 

Creek assemblage. 
26 Cenozoic Tectonic Reorganizations of the Death Valley Region, Southeast California and Southwest Nevada

Provenance is the feature that most clearly distinguishes 

Badwater strata from all older syntectonic Cenozoic deposits 

of the Death Valley region. The provenance of even the oldest 

Badwater deposits is similar to late Holocene deposits of the 

same depositional environment, found in the same locality. 

In those cases where the provenance differs, it does so in a 

manner that is explicable in terms of predictable evolutionary 

processes within the modern tectonic, and resulting topographic 

regime. For example, most upsection changes in provenance 

observed can be explained as a consequence of ongoing erosional unroofing in the existing source area, stream capture, 

and similar ongoing processes.

Post-Basin-Range Sequence

In the wake of the migrating wave of basin-range tectonism, that part of the Death Valley region that lies east and 

northeast of Death Valley physiographic feature has become 

the site of deposition of the last sequence of Cenozoic sediments 

(fig. 11), which is termed “post-basin-range.” Other than in 

the Owlshead Mountains (OM; fig. 11), no post-basin-range 

sediments are present from Death Valley to the Sierra Nevada 

range-front, by definition, because this region is one of ongoing 

tectonism of the Badwater stage. 

The post-basin-range deposits of the Death Valley region 

rarely have any formation names assigned to them. The major 

exception is the Tecopa “lake-beds” (TLB; fig. 11) near the 

east-central margin of the central Death Valley rhombochasm 

(Morrison, 1999), discussed above. These “lake beds” actually 

are mainly paludal deposits (R. Forester and M. Reheis, 

USGS, oral commun., 2003), from which a date of 5.1 Ma 

has been obtained from a tuff near the base (Morrison, 1999). 

Because they are predominantly untilted and poorly consolidated, many post-basin-range strata have been mapped as “old 

Quaternary alluvium” (for example, Burchfiel and others, 

1983), even where they are as old as middle Miocene at the 

base, on the basis of interbedded tephras.

Post-basin-range strata are characteristically untilted and 

unfaulted; however, there are local exceptions adjacent to 

faults that have remained active at low rates within basins that 

have otherwise been abandoned tectonically. The basal contact 

of this sequence is, in some cases, an angular unconformity, 

and in others the top of a section of fanning dips. The base is 

that horizon at which significant tectonic tilting and faulting 

of the beds is buried upsection within the vast majority of a 

basin. The base of the post-basin-range sequence ranges from 

a maximum age of ≈12 Ma, in the Owlshead Mountains (OM) 

and all but the westernmost part of the Pahrump Basin (PB), 

to as young as ≈2 Ma areas immediately east of Death Valley 

(fig. 11). 

Post-basin-range volcanism is minor. The few volcanic 

units that have erupted within the post-basin-range domain 

are small basaltic centers in the area of the southwest Nevada 

volcanic field. They evidently are the final declining phase of 

activity of this large and long-lived magmatic system.

The post-basin-range strata generally consist of only a 

thin (≤100s of meters) capping layer above syn-basin-range 

basin fill, even where the base of this sequence is middle Miocene. This reflects a slow deposition rate. The high deposition 

rates of the syn-basin-range sequence must, therefore, be tectonically driven; for example, by formation and maintenance 

of steep scarps between actively subsiding basins and adjacent 

actively uplifting ranges. 

The vast majority of post-basin-range deposits consist of 

alluvial and playa deposits; however, fluvial, eolian, groundwater discharge, and other deposits are part of the sequence. 

As is true for the strata of the Badwater assemblage, the provenance of the post-basin-range deposits is generally similar 

to that of the late Holocene deposits of the same depositional 

environment, found in the same locality. A major exception to 

that relation is seen in some of the basins in which basin-range 

tectonism ended in the Miocene. In many of these basins, 

fluvial deposits and even some of the more far-traveled alluvial 

sediments within the post-basin-range sequence record a trend 

toward more distal derivation of clasts with time. In most 

cases, this trend is indicated by abrupt upsection provenance 

changes, which record the reintegration of drainage between 

previously closed basins, because of erosional removal or 

depositional overtopping of the topographic barriers that 

once divided these basins, after strong local tectonism ceased 

(Lundstrom and Warren, 1994; Menges and others, 2008). 

The fragmentation of the landscape that results from basinrange tectonism is, thus, impermanent, and the trend toward 

drainage reintegration probably begins as soon as significant 

tectonism ceases.

Discussions 

1. What caused the tectonic reorganizations of the Death 

Valley region?

It has long been known that the loci of basin-range tectonism and of related volcanism have migrated in a regular manner across the Death Valley region, specifically, and across the 

basin-range province, in general, during the late Cenozoic (for 

example, see Armstrong and others, 1969; and McKee, 1971; 

Axen and others, 1993). The current study departs from most 

previous ones in the recognition that this has been a strongly 

episodic process, not a continuous one. In the Death Valley 

region, at least, westward migration of the tectonic locus and 

coeval reorganizations of strain patterns have occurred primarily 

in step-wise fashion—in a series of discrete short-lived tectonic 

reorganizations. The fact that these reorganizations were 

roughly synchronous over an entire region indicates that they 

are caused by processes that operate on a similarly large, if not 

even a larger scale. 

The most notable of the tectonic reorganizations that 

occurred during basin-range extension in the Death Valley 
Discussions 27

118° 117° 116°

37°

36°

Post-basin-range

12

2

7

7

6

9

9 11

11

9 7

2

2

3

6

6

9

7

7

12

11

OM

SDVF

PB

TLB 

Base modified from U.S. Geological Survey 

1:100,000 scale map.

Study

area

NV

CA

SIERRA NEVADA

DEATH

VALLEY

 Spring Mountains

11

11

EXPLANATION

Post-basin-range

Modern range-basin outlines 6

Depositional outlines

Age at base (Ma)

0

0 50 KILOMETERS

20 50 MILES

20 

30

30

40

40

10

10

Figure 11. Distribution of the post-basin-range sequence of the Death Valley region, and the estimated ages (Ma) of 

the strata at the base of this sequence, showing the westward younging of the base-age.
28 Cenozoic Tectonic Reorganizations of the Death Valley Region, Southeast California and Southwest Nevada

region is the one that occurred from ≈12.5 to ≈11.5 Ma. 

Whereas some of the major strike-slip faults of the region 

were clearly present before ≈12.5 Ma, rapid slip and large 

offsets on most of these faults evidently began at this time. 

Moreover, an abrupt climate change occurred at ≈12.5, 

possibly caused by initial uplift of an ancestral Sierra Nevada, 

resulting in a rain shadow over the region. The latter circumstance suggests that this reorganization involved changes that 

extended beyond the Death Valley region, and in fact beyond 

the Basin-Range province. 

Geodetic studies show that the northern Walker Lane belt, 

the Death Valley region, and the associated part of the eastern 

California shear zone that lies to the south currently accommodate ≈25 percent of the total right-lateral slip between the 

Pacific and North American plates (Hammond and Thatcher, 

2004; and references therein). Moreover, the San Andreas 

fault, which accommodates about 50 percent of the strike-slip 

plate motion, shows a long-term correlation in its tectonic 

evolution to reorganizations of the boundary between these 

two plates (Atwater and Molnar, 1973). Therefore, an obvious 

hypothesis to test is that the timing of tectonic evolution in the 

Death Valley region also may be related to tectonic reorganizations of this nearby plate boundary.

The timing of the major observed events in the tectonic 

evolution of the Death Valley region, summarized from above, 

are as follows: (1) ≥40 Ma – onset of extension-related but 

pre-basin-range basinal sedimentation, (2) ≈19 Ma – cessation 

of deposition at onset of ≈3 m.y. lacuna, (3) ≈16 Ma – end of 

lacuna and onset of basin-range tectonism in the eastern half 

of the region, (3) ≈12.5 to 11.5 Ma – first reorganization of 

basin-range extension, (4) bracketed between ≈7.5 and ≈6.2 Ma – 

second reorganization, and (5) ≈4.5 to ≈3 Ma – third reorganization. Additionally, there is the unconformity at roughly 

28 Ma, which Snow and Lux (1999) considered an important 

stratigraphic boundary, but was not used in the stratigraphic 

model of the current study because it is not a regionally traceable stratigraphic boundary.

For comparison, the major events in the evolution of 

the Pacific-North American plate boundary to the west and 

southwest of the Death Valley region are: (1) between ≈45 and 

≈40 Ma – worldwide plate motions changed, and the Pacific 

plate began moving away from the North American plate, 

(2) between ≈25 and 29 Ma – a major plate reorganization 

resulted from intersection of the Pacific—Farallon spreading 

center with the subduction zone bordering the North American 

plate just south of the Mendicino fracture zone, (3) at ≈19 Ma, 

spreading perpendicular to the trench ceased between the 

Monterey and Pacific plates, (4) from ≈12.5 to ≈11 Ma -- the 

eastern boundary of the Pacific plate jumped eastward from a 

large segment of the East Pacific Rise into the vicinity that is 

now Baja California and major slip began on strike-slip faults 

along the west coast of the North American plate from the 

Mendicino Fracture Zone to the southern tip of Baja California, 

(5) in a series of steps beginning at ≈6.5 Ma and ending at 

≈3.5 Ma with the major changes at the beginning and end, the 

Mathematician spreading ridge was abandoned in favor of the 

East Pacific Rise, and seafloor spreading began in the Gulf of 

California (Atwater, 1970; Mammerickx and Klitgord, 1982; 

Ward, 1991; Bohannon and Parsons, 1995). All of the above 

reorganizations of this plate boundary were short-lived events 

that separated longer periods in which the loci, directions, and 

rates of seafloor spreading were relatively uniform (Mammerickx and Klitgord, 1982).

The correlation between the timing of the tectonic reorganizations of the Death Valley region and those of the PacificNorth American plate boundary is too close to be coincidental. 

Moreover, the punctuation of the tectonic evolution by shortlived episodes of radical change, separating long stages characterized by slow monotonic change, is essentially the same 

in both cases. This supports models that explain the widely 

distributed transtensional tectonism in southwestern North 

America since ≈40 Ma as resulting from traction imposed by 

the neighboring, divergent Pacific plate.

The only event in the Death Valley region that may not 

correlate in a straightforward way to an event at the plate 

boundary to the west and southwest is the onset of basin-range 

extension at ≈16 Ma. Based on essentially the same data, some 

workers have interpreted a plate reorganization event starting 

at ≈16 Ma (Barrash and Venkatakrishnan, 1982), and other 

workers have not (Mammerickx and Klitgord, 1982). Nonetheless, 16 Ma is a date at which basin-range extension and 

related volcanism began over large parts of the Northern Basin 

and Range province, and giant outpourings of basalt started or 

peaked on adjacent parts of the Columbia River Plateau (fig. 1; 

Barrash and Venkatakrishnan, 1982). Thus, the ≈16 Ma event 

in the Death Valley region is not an isolated occurrence. Even 

if it is not related to a plate boundary reorganization event, 

it evidently is part of a pulse of tectonic and related volcanic 

activity that affected a large part of the western United States. 

If the tectonic reorganizations of the Death Valley region 

were driven by those along the Pacific-North American plate 

boundary, then a correlative pattern should be found at least 

in the northern part of the Walker Lane belt, and possibly in 

other parts of western North America. In fact, Henry and others 

(2007) have documented that significant changes in strain 

patterns occurred in the northern part of the Walker Lane belt 

at ≈12 Ma and at ≈3 Ma. Moreover, a significant unconformity 

dating from ≈6 to ≈7 Ma also has been found in part of this 

region in an unpublished study (C.D. Henry, Nevada Bureau 

of Mines and Geology/University of Nevada–Reno, oral commun., 2010).

It may be significant that the onset of major slip along 

the large strike-slip faults internal to the Death Valley region 

began at the same time that it began along the west margin of 

the North American plate—at ≈12.5 Ma. This suggests that 

the current relation, in which a major fraction of the PacificNorth American plate strike-slip offset is accommodated in 

the Eastern California shear zone—including the Death Valley 

region—began at this time. 
Discussions 29

2. What processes underlie the nature of the changes that 

occur during tectonic reorganizations?

A. Structural Changes

Strain patterns are a result of a complex interplay 

between the regional stress regime and the strength of the 

lithosphere in three dimensions, including previously formed 

weaknesses. Some features of the strain regime probably are 

driven largely, if not entirely, by the regional stress regime, 

such as the relative proportion of extension to strike-slip 

strain. 

Another feature that is probably controlled by the 

regional stress regime is the direction of upper-plate transport 

during extension. Based on existing mapping, the estimated 

azimuth of extensional transport in the Death Valley region 

has changed progressively from roughly 270o in the Owlshead 

tectonic stage to roughly 300o in the ongoing Badwater stage 

(see figs. 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10). Thus, it has been slowly rotating 

clockwise throughout the time of basin-range extension. The 

same change has been documented in many other parts of 

southwestern North America, and it can be related to the 

evolution of the boundary between the Pacific and North 

American plates since the beginning of the middle Miocene 

(Bohannon and Parsons, 1995). In contrast, the style of faulting and of other deformational processes most likely reflects 

the state of strength in the crust, which has undoubtedly changed 

in a progressive manner during basin-range extension. 

The observed progressive changes in the style of faulting 

in the Death Valley region are summarized as follows. (1) In 

the Hells Gate-Owlshead tectonic stage, most if not all of the 

major basin-bounding faults were detachment faults (fig. 6) 

that formed at low angles (Holm and Dokka, 1993; Fowler 

and Calzia, 1999). None of these early detachment faults 

have the classic turtleback form. Turtleback-like mullions 

are locally present on them, but the overall forms are mainly 

subhorizontal and subplanar. (2) The major basin-bounding 

faults of the Navadu stage are about equally divided between 

detachment faults and moderate- to high-angle range-front faults 

(fig. 8). Some of the detachment faults of this stage have classic turtleback forms, but those that formed in the Owlshead 

stage and remained active into the Navadu stage retained their 

subplanar forms. (3) The major basin-bounding faults of the 

Furnace Creek stage are dominantly moderate- to high-angle 

range-front faults. Two new detachment faults formed and 

were active through this stage (fig. 9), and both have strongly 

developed turtleback forms. (4) And in the Badwater tectonic 

stage, there are no provable active detachment faults. The 

major basin-bounding faults are largely moderate- to high-angle 

faults, and are higher in angle and evidently more planar (less 

listric), on average, than in the three preceding stages of basinrange extension (fig. 10). 

Some workers have suggested that low-angle normal 

faulting (detachment faulting?) is still ongoing in the Death 

Valley region (Cichanski, 2000; Diderickson, 2005; Numelin 

and others, 2007). All three of the well-documented examples 

are in areas in the far southern part of the region, adjacent to 

the Garlock fault. Thus, if there has been detachment faulting in the Badwater stage, it evidently has been confined to 

a narrow perimeter immediately adjacent to a very active 

strike-slip fault. In any case, the faulting of the Badwater stage 

is unquestionably the highest-angle faulting, on average, of the 

four stages of basin-range extension.

This trend toward ever-higher-angle faulting is probably a 

consequence of progressive thinning of the crust during basinrange extension. The crust of the Death Valley region was 

strongly overthickened when basin-range extension began, 

because of the preceding late Paleozoic through Mesozoic 

contraction. This belt of overthickened crust was continental 

in scale, and the detachment faults of western North America 

(fig. 1) are found only within this belt (Wust, 1986). 

The strong contraction in this belt resulted in a crust in 

which sialic material extended much deeper than in normalthickness crust, and thus to depths in which this material was 

hotter. The resultant high mid-crustal ductility, at the onset 

of basin-range extension, may have favored the formation of 

low-angle normal faults (Yin, 1989). Crustal thinning reversed 

that pattern, and progressive loss of mid-crustal ductility thus 

favored increasing steep faulting with time. Why the dominant 

exposed forms of the detachment fault surfaces changed 

during the interval of basin-range extension is unknown, but 

we would speculate that it is related to progressive crustal 

thinning, and resultant changes in large-scale ductility or other 

crustal properties.

 B. Changes in Volcanism

The rate of volcanism during basin-range extension in 

the Death Valley region generally has risen and fallen through 

time with the rise and fall in the extension rate. The one 

exception is the volcanic hiatus at the beginning of the Navadu 

stage, which evidently coincided with the interval of maximum 

extension rate, as discussed above. A general correlation 

between the rates of extension and magmatism supports the 

concept that extension-related magmatism results from decompression melting in the upper mantle.

The overall trend from: (1) andesite-rhyolite, to (2) quasibimodal, to (3) basalt-dominated true bimodal, to (3) almost 

strictly basaltic compositions (fig. 4) throughout the last 

15 m.y. in the Death Valley region is similar to magma compositional trends observed in other parts of the Basin and Range 

Province (Christiansen and Lipman, 1972). At least two major 

factors may contribute to this pattern. First, nearly all volcanism on earth is fundamentally basaltic, and magma compositions other than basalt probably form only in crustal magma 

chambers. Thus, volcanism that is too feeble to form crustal 

chambers can be nothing but basaltic. Moreover, complex 

associations of different compositions require a high magmageneration rate. Additionally, crustal thickness may play an 

important role. It may be difficult for basaltic magma to pass 
30 Cenozoic Tectonic Reorganizations of the Death Valley Region, Southeast California and Southwest Nevada

through a strongly overthickened crust without undergoing 

extensive fractionation and assimilation. This may explain the 

scarcity of erupted basalts at the inception of extension, when 

the crust was still thick. 

Another factor that may be involved is subduction, which 

was occurring along the west coast of southern California at 

the inception of basin-range extension in the Death Valley 

region. By ≈10 Ma, subduction had ceased along the plate 

boundary immediately to the west of the Death Valley region 

(Atwater, 1970). Thus, the early volcanism of the region may 

have been related to both subduction and extension; whereas 

the post-≈10 Ma volcanism was related to extension alone 

(Christiansen and Lipman, 1972). Subduction-related volcanism is characteristically andesitic, and andesitic volcanism 

did largely end in the Death Valley region by ≈10 Ma, as 

discussed above. 

C. Step-wise migration of the locus of tectonism and 

volcanism

Progressive westward stepping of the belt of strong basinrange tectonism has been a key feature of the tectonic reorganizations that have occurred in the Death Valley region. The 

cause of this is almost certainly local, but universal to areas 

undergoing extension. As the crust has thinned during basinrange extension, the sialic material in the middle crust has 

cooled and become less ductile. Counter-intuitively, crustal 

thinning may thus result in progressive strengthening of the 

crust. Basin-range extension probably was initially localized 

on some of the weakest crust—the path of least resistance. As 

progressive extension has “used up” that weak crust, adjacent 

zones of still-overthickened crust have become the new path 

of least resistance. 

Additionally, when extension is unidirectional, the separation between the upper-crustal zone of brittle strain and the 

middle and lower crustal root zone of ductile strain increases 

as extension occurs. Moreover, the dips on major structures 

that transfer strain between the brittle upper crust and the ductile 

middle and lower crust become progressively lower with time, 

not only because of the increasing separation, but also because 

the depth to the brittle-ductile transition decreases during 

crustal thinning. The growing separation and progressive 

decrease in fault dips increase friction. This is the process that 

drives the slow, minor within-stage migrations in the locus of 

strongest tectonism. When a large-scale tectonic reorganization precipitates a radical rearrangement of the strain pattern, 

any part of the old pattern of faults that has excess friction is 

abandoned, and the locus of tectonism moves into relatively 

virgin crust to the west because it’s weaker and closer to the 

ductile root zone of extensional deformation.

 The crust to the west of the previous tectonic locus is 

not truly virgin, however, because the westward rooting of 

the major faults causes deep-seated extension to the west of 

the tectonic locus in the brittle upper crust. Thus, throughout 

basin-range tectonism, the lower ductile part of the crust has 

been extending across the whole of the Death Valley region, 

and even to the west, under the Sierra Nevada block. And 

this is why the nature of volcanism and the style of faulting 

has evolved in a more-or-less uniform manner throughout the 

region during basin-range extension.

Acknowledgments

We thank M.C. Reheis, R.G. Bohannon, E. Anderson, 

J.C. Cole, T.W. Judkins, and M.M. Coates for thoughtful 

input and critiques. The understanding of the Death Valley 

region presented here was developed over a 20-year period of 

field-intensive studies that were supported through funding 

and other forms of support from the U.S. Geological Survey 

National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program, the U.S. 

Department of Energy’s Yucca Mountain Project and Environmental Restoration Program, the Inyo County Yucca Mountain 

Nuclear Waste Assessment Project, the National Park Service, 

and the Hydrodynamics Group. The figures and plate were 

drafted by M.A. Berger. 
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Fridrich and Thompson— Cenozoic Tectonic Reorganizations of the Death Valley Region, Southeast California and Southwest Nevada—Professional Paper 1783