Show ge PA PANAMINT RANGE IN california by joseph J phelby the T he range is one of the most portana of the ranges auxiliary to the erra nevada which lie in the belt east of land runs northeast and southwest paral 1 to its front the range is about iles in length at its northern end it erges into lava flows which unite with I 1 berges e northern end of the grapevine range hile at its southern end it passes into low alls is of tertiary later strata and associated yas vas capped by later basic cs if the southwestern barrier of death galley alley which it fronts with a steep slope this athis range has been very little explored id d not much is known concerning its geo gyon the east front of the range above the a ad d from furnace creek in death valley the crossing of the range at wing gap large portion of the range consists of the ider der stata fied rocks which seem to lie be feath th unturned tertiary later sediments nd d associated cs and are cut rough by masses of intrusive granite the rift ft shows them to be in part finely crys line blue limestone and in part quartzite iwhite hite grey or green often considerably altered and often coarse grained the amount aff quartzite in the drift implies a considerable thickness of this rock and suggests that the strata are of cambrian age one of the Ij earlier arlier ages in which deposits of quartzite alyere numerous from this neighborhood northward the panamint range is composed chiefly of old paleozoic stratified rocks till near its northern girn end as can be plainly seen from death valley mr fairbanks found on the western side of the range north of windy gap aas as far as the pinto range which is a spur af the panamint range running northwesterly trefly from the wild rose mining district diat bat a portion of the rocks are mica atu r and marbles which have been cut by intrusive granite the strike of the 0 folds is parallel with the trend of the vange lange so that unless disturbed by cross faulting the same general formation will be found for many miles therefore the cambrian and silurian have been represented as extending northward until covered by volcanic flows at the northern end of the orange range the eastern flanks of the range fronting Death valley as seen on the road between I 1 furnace creek and windy gap ik A are re composed of upturned yellow green cirata strata and associated cs lying upon the e older rocks with no evident unconformity bolty and partaking of their folds this belt of cs and sediments grows yo ws wider toward the south the same r ries ries occurs along a great part of the road aich ich broses the range to windy gap the ya va in these belts proved in three different amples ples to be andesite this series of conglomerates brec cias tufts chemical and lavas is the same as that exposed on the opposite side of death valley where it forms practically the whole mass of the Fur mountains in the funeral mountains these rocks have been provisionally correlated with the esmeralda formation in the silver peak range in the southern portion of the range the core of the mountains for foi some distance is made up of a body of marive granite which varies to granite porphyry the granite which cuts the ancient lime stones and quart in the mining regions on the east side of the panamint is a hornblende gran ite with much quartz As already stated volcanic rocks make up a considerable portion of the tertiary formations three specimens of these rocks examined all proved to be andesite but probably other rocks occurred in these series overlying these older lavas is a later flow of more basic rocks which cover a considerable area in the neighborhood neighbor hod south of windy gap mr fairbanks states that on the northern slopes of the panamint range overlooking mesquite valley there are scattered sheets of andesite and basalt yet another series of cs is exposed in this region it is that forming the greater part of the slate range which lies immediately went of the southern end of the panamint range the highest portion of the panamint range for a number of miles east of panamint a body of ancient rhyolite is regarded as one of the most ancient lavas observed in the region the northern norther n end of the panamint range the paleozoic rocks are here covered by extensive flows of lava which appears to be nearly continuous with the lava area at the extreme southwestern portion of the silver peak range structure that por portion tion of the panamint range between a point opposite furnace creek and windy gap appeared in in general there is here a series of alternating anticlines anti clines and synclines syncline syn clines sp having trends due north and south each of these folds may be traced continuously for a number of miles the explanation of th this is phenomenon may be a series of east west faults which fault the folds systematically to the east on the south side in the panamint range much of the deformation must be of comparatively recent date we know much of it occurred since the deposition of the tertiary beds and associated lavas copied from bulletin no issued by the united states Go logical survey nevada south of the parallel and adjacent portions of california by josiah erward spurr 1903 panamint district in inyo county cali fornia is one of the oldest mining districts in inyo county it is seventy miles almost due south from goldfield nevada and about half that distance from the famous camp of bullfrog Bul frog the town of ballarat ballaran Ball arat is located in panamint valley while rands burg is sixty miles distant on the santa fe panamint district is easily accessible there are streams of running water in the canyons and forests of pinon pine are to be found on the mountain tops this is an old silver producing camp of note in which rich gold veins have recently been discovered |