Question: What caused the abrupt uplift of the Sierra?
About the article "Yosemite National Park", section "Uplift and erosion".

Candidate passages:
The Sierra Nevada ( or , , "snowy range") is a mountain range in the western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Basin and Range Province.
The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily in Nevada.
The Sierra runs north-to-south, and is approximately across east-to-west.
Notable Sierra features include Lake Tahoe, the largest alpine lake in North America; Mount Whitney at , the highest point in the contiguous United States; and Yosemite Valley sculpted by glaciers out of 100-million-year-old granite.
The Sierra is home to three national parks, 20 wilderness areas, and two national monuments.
These areas include Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon National Parks; and Devils Postpile National Monument.
The character of the range is shaped by its geology and ecology.
More than 100 million years ago during the Nevadan orogeny, granite formed deep underground.
The range started to uplift 4 Ma (million years) ago, and erosion by glaciers exposed the granite and formed the light-colored mountains and cliffs that make up the range.
The uplift caused a wide range of elevations and climates in the Sierra Nevada, which are reflected by the presence of five life zones.
Uplift continues due to faulting caused by tectonic forces, creating spectacular fault block escarpments along the eastern edge of the southern Sierra.
The Sierra Nevada has a significant history.
The California Gold Rush occurred in the western foothills from 1848 through 1855.
Due to inaccessibility, the range was not fully explored until 1912. 
The Sierra Madre Occidental is a mountain range in western Mexico.
The name "Sierra Madre" means "Mother Mountains".
The range extends from near the Arizona border down to the Sierra Madre del Sur.
The high plateau that is formed by the range is cut by deep river valleys.
This plateau is formed from volcanic rock overlying a basement of metamorphic rock.
This uplift has caused changes in weather patterns; increased rainfall occurring in the mountains has provided areas where ecosystems can form in wetter areas than surrounding land.
This water-source forms watersheds that provide the arid surroundings with water that makes it possible to irrigate and farm crops.
The wet ecosystems are islands of biodiversity, differing significantly from what would otherwise be a desert landscape.
Oak forests are the predominant plant life and extend into the low land deserts.
This forest and canyon land provided a place for a variety of indigenous people to live, until Spanish settlers with associated Mestizos came into the area to found towns for the silver mines in the area.
The major industries in the area now are agriculture and forestry, which have become contentious because of land degradation and the native population's opposition to these practices. 
Starting 10 million years ago, vertical movement along the Sierra fault started to uplift the Sierra Nevada.
Subsequent tilting of the Sierra block and the resulting accelerated uplift of the Sierra Nevada increased the gradient of western-flowing streams.
The streams consequently ran faster and thus cut their valleys more quickly.
Additional uplift occurred when major faults developed to the east, especially the creation of Owens Valley from Basin and Range-associated extensional forces.
Uplift of the Sierra accelerated again about two million years ago during the Pleistocene.
The uplifting and increased erosion exposed granitic rocks in the area to surface pressures, resulting in exfoliation (responsible for the rounded shape of the many domes in the park) and mass wasting following the numerous fracture joint planes (cracks; especially vertical ones) in the now solidified plutons.
Pleistocene glaciers further accelerated this process and the larger ones transported the resulting talus and till from valley floors.
Numerous vertical joint planes controlled where and how fast erosion took place.
Most of these long, linear and very deep cracks trend northeast or northwest and form parallel, often regularly spaced sets.
They were created by uplift-associated pressure release and by the unloading of overlying rock via erosion.
Coastal terraces marine terraces can be produced by tectonism only.
The seismically active coastline of southern California, USA, for example, can be considered an emergent coastline, where tectonism due to subduction provides periodic, abrupt uplift of the shoreline.
Wave erosion along uplifted portions of the coastline creates the terrace riser, and the old shore becomes an abandoned surface.
Intervals of uplift can therefore create several levels of terracing along the coast that are produced solely by tectonic uplift. 
The Sierra Morena stretches for 450 Km in an E-W direction from the high course of the Guadalmena River in the Sierra del Relumbrar until northwestern Huelva Province, extending into Portugal.
The system is the result of the uplift produced by the pressure of the northward-moving African Plate.
It is made up of hard Paleozoic rocks such as granite and quartzite, as well as softer materials such as slate and gneiss.
Its name, roughly meaning 'dark range', is likely derived from the dark color of some of the rocks and vegetation of the ranges that make up the mountainous system.
It is also mentioned as "Sierra Mariánica" in some documents.
Formerly it was a border area, a vast wilderness with little population and its mountain passes were important for the communication between Andalusia and Central Spain.
The peaks of the ranges are not very high on average, in fact Sierra Morena's highest point is the lowest among the mountain systems of the Iberian Peninsula.
They are, however, very consistent in altitude, averaging between 600 and 1,300 m all along the system.
Since they form the southern edge of the "Meseta Central", the Iberian Central Plateau, the northern Sierra Morena ranges barely rise above the level of the surrounding plateau in most places.
Nevertheless, the Sierra Morena looks like a true mountain range seen from the Baetic Depression in the south with impressive southward-facing slopes and gorges.
Located within the province of Jaén, the Despeñaperros, an abrupt canyon created by the Despeñaperros River, with sheer walls over 500 metres high, is the natural path for crossing the Sierra Morena into Andalusia from the north of the peninsula.