Late cenozoic evolution of Fortymile Ash: Major change in drainage pattern in the Yucca Mountain, Nevada region during late miocene volcanism

Analysis of sedimentary provenance and altitude distribution of volcanic strata along Fortymile Wash, the primary desert wash east of Yucca Mountain, NV, indicates a major change in surface drainage basins related to late Miocene volcanic disruption. This event resulted in the establishment of the modern Fortymile Wash basin before 3 Ma, and probably by latest Miocene time. An understanding of this event is useful for evaluation of extensive alluviation east of Yucca Mountain and its relation to paleoclimate, hydrology and tectonics. To the northeast of Yucca Mountain, Fortymile Wash provides southward surface drainage from 60% of the area of the 11 Ma Timber Mountain caldera via Fortymile Canyon, a major breach in the caldera wall. In the southeast caldera moat, the distribution of volcanic units that predate and include the 9.4 Ma Thirsty Canyon Group and the characteristics of intercalated sediments indicate a northward paleoslope and sediment transport from a major drainage divide near Dome Mountain, a shield volcano now deeply incised by Fortymile Canyon. Eruption of the Thirsty Canyon Group from the Black Mountain area, 10 km northwest of the Timber Mountain caldera, is likely to have dammed a counterclockwise drainage system of the east moat. Following drainage disruption, the east moat filled with sediment up to the level of a new southward outlet at the saddle between Dome Mountain and the onlapping rhyolite of Shoshone Mountain. An older canyon south of this saddle received the overflow from the east moat and became the throughgoing Fortymile Canyon, integrating the east moat basin with a lower base level in Jackass Flats. Well-integrated southward drainage existed by the time the trachybasalt flows of Buckboard Mesa (2.8 Ma) were emplaced, because basal elevations of these flows slope southward about 100 m above modern Fortymile Wash