Emplacement of the Joshua Flat-Beer Creek Pluton (White Inyo Mountains, California): a story of multiple material transfer processes

Abstract The Joshua Flat-Beer Creek Pluton (JBP) in the White Inyo Mountains, California, is part of the Inyo batholith, which intruded a Neoproterozoic to Lower Cambrian metasedimentary sequence at about 180–160 Ma ago. Contact metamorphism around the JBP reached hornblende-hornfels- to lower amphibolite-facies conditions. The intrusion consists of three distinct phases. Field relations suggest an intrusion sequence Marble Canyon Diorite-Joshua Flat Monzonite-Beer Creek Granodiorite as nested diapirs. In the Marble Canyon Diorite as well as the Joshua Flat Monzonite the subsequent intrusions led to brecciation and stoping, but also to mingling and mixing between the Joshua Flat Monzonite and the Beer Creek Granodiorite. Fabrics in the contact aureole document several emplacement mechanisms such as stoping and dyking, ductile downward flow, partial melting and magma chamber expansion. The relative importance of the different emplacement mechanisms through time is as follows: the Marble Canyon Diorite probably intruded as dyke/sill, whereas stoping and dyking, ductile downward flow together with assimilation acted during the emplacement of the Joshua Flat Monzonite. Magma chamber expansion represents only the latest stage of intrusion during the emplacement of the Beer Creek Granodiorite into the already existing magma chamber of the JBP. AMS, quartz c -axis and strain measurements support the field observations.