Old Mines of Southern California: Desert-Mountain-Coastal Areas Including the Calico-Salton Sea Colorado River Districts and Southern CountiesFairbanks, Harold W. (Harold Wellman)
History
Old Mines of Southern California: Desert-Mountain-Coastal Areas Including the Calico-Salton Sea Colorado River Districts and Southern Counties
Fairbanks, Harold W. (Harold Wellman)
Geology -- California, Southern; Mines and mineral resources -- California, Southern
On the north bank of the Santa Margarita Creek, near the ranch house, is
an interesting cliff of Quaternary sands and gravel, showing a number of
strata deposited under different conditions on an old beach. (Fig. 13.)
The Tertiary beds north of the Santa Margarita Creek are very different
in outline from those south. Instead of their extending in a gradual
slope from the older mountains to the ocean, there arises in them, near
their western border, a range of mountains, known as the San Onofre
Mountains. These extend parallel to the ocean at an average distance of
2 miles. They rise north of the Santa Margarita Creek and extend to the
San Onofre Creek. They have a gradual slope on the west, rising to an
elevation of 1,400 feet, but are quite abrupt on the east. Los Flores
Creek cuts through the southern end of this range, showing that while
the soft, clayey sandstones between it and the Santa Margarita Mountains
slope only 5° to 10° southwest, the rocks of the range itself dip west
at an angle of 35° to 40°. The formation is a breccia, the fragments of
which are argillitic, micaceous, and hornblendic schists. Some of these
fragments are of great size, one bowlder of hornblende schist being 8
feet in diameter. Pebbles of white quartz and other hard metamorphics
are also present. The soft, coarse sandstone in which the fragments are
imbedded show no traces of any granitic matter. The range was ascended 2
miles north of the Los Flores ranch house, and found to consist entirely
of fragmental schists, such as those mentioned, dipping southwest at an
angle of 45°. The mountains were also climbed at their northern end,
near San Onofre Creek. Here there is a very abrupt escarpment on the
eastern side. The strata dip toward the ocean at a high angle, while the
irregular hills and ridges of soft, light-colored sandstone lying east
toward the Santa Margarita Mountains are nearly level. After a careful
study of the range the conclusion was reached that its origin was due to
a great fault, represented by the very abrupt eastern slope, tilting the
elevated portion to the west at a high angle. I believe that this fault
took place after the deposition of the Tertiary strata. As far as my
observation went the Tertiary beds on the east do not rise to meet the
San Onofre range, as they would to a certain extent if it were present
when they were deposited; on the contrary, they dip toward it. West of
the range the ocean is bordered by very high cliffs of Quaternary clays,
and in only two or three places do the Tertiary rocks outcrop. Small
patches of sandstone outcrop near the road at the western foot of the
mountains; they also dip west at a high angle. Many of the fragments at
the northern end of the range show their derivation from a massive
crystalline rock. The hornblende schists are generally garnetiferous.
Blue glaucophane schists are also very common. South of Mission Viejo
Creek, Orange County, there is an outcrop of rock, apparently in place,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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