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Granite Mountains (northern San Bernardino County, California)

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The Granite Mountains is an overall, east-west trending mountain range in the Mojave Desert and northern San Bernardino County, California. It lies within Fort Irwin National Training Center, about 10 mi (16 km) north of Fort Irwin.[1]

Satellite view of San Bernardino County, California, showing the location of three mountain ranges named Granite Mountains.

This mounatin range is south of Death Valley National Park, south of the Quail Mountains, and west of the Avawatz Mountains. It is named in the southern portion of the following USGS 7.5-minute topographic quadrangle maps: West of Leach Spring, Leach Spring, and Leach Lake; and the northern portion of West of Drinkwater Lake and Drinkwater Lake. The mountain range extends slightly into the northern edge of West of Nelson Lake and Nelson Lake 7.5-minute topographic quadrangle maps.

Geography

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The Granite Mountains is a concave southward, bow-shaped", range which stretches 26.2 mi (42.2 km) east-southeast from latidue and longitude, 35.50848, -116.97359 to Granite Pass (35.42529, -116.55146). The hills east-southeast of Granite Pass, their highest elevation 4,524 ft (1,379 m), extending another 5.6 mi (9.0 km) to 35.41654, -116.4681, are not named on the USGS topographic maps, and are not included in the points given for these mountains in the Geographic Names Information System.[1] However, these hills are included as part of this range on page 58 of an official US Army Corps of Engineers report[2] and in maps published online by San Bernardino County.[3]

The highest peak in the Granite Mountains is an unnamed peak at 35°27′5.27″N 116°35′45.38″W / 35.4514639°N 116.5959389°W / 35.4514639; -116.5959389 in the Drinkwater Lake 7.5-minute topographic quadrangle.[4] This peak has a summit elevation of 5,299 ft (1,615 m) above sea level.[5] A road and power line go to the top, where there are several structures and two radio facilities.[6] Microwave antennas and video cameras there are used to monitor military training exercises in the valley to the south and live-fire exercises conducted north of the range.[2][7]

Geology

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The Granite Mountains Fault Zone runs through most of the range; the primary fault lines are east-west sinistral.[8] The rocks are primarily felsic plutonic, nonfoliated granitoid rocks from the Late Cretaceous period that weather to grus. [9]

Botany

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Plants documented in the Granite Mountains include Psorothamnus arborescens var. arborescens (Mojave indigo-bush),[2] Cylindropuntia echinocarpa (silver cholla), many cacti, Yucca schidigera (Spanish bayonet), and species of Brickellia, Ericameria, Ephedra, and Encelia.[10] Surveys at springs reported Amaranthus fimbriatus (fringed amaranth), Ambrosia dumosa (white bursage), Amsinckia tessellata (bristly fiddleneck), Atriplex canescens (four-wing saltbush), Bromus madritensis (compact brome), Coleogyne ramosissima (blackbrush), Cucurbita palmata (coyote melon), Descurainia pinnata (western tansymustard), Distichlis spicata (saltgrass), Encelia farinosa (brittlebush), Ephedra nevadensis (Mormon tea), Ericameria cooperi (Coopers’s goldenbush), Eriogonum fasciculatum (California buckwheat), Eriogonum panamintense (Panamint Mountain buckwheat), Gutierrezia microcephala (threadleaf snakeweed), Larrea tridentata (creosote bush), Lycium andersonii (water-jacket), Nicotiana obtusifolia (desert tobacco), Phacelia crenulata (notch-leaf scorpion-weed), Polypogon monspeliensis (annual beard-grass), Populus fremontii (Fremont cottonwood), Prunus fasciculata (wild almond), Purshia tridentata (bitterbrush), Salazaria mexicana (bladder sage ), Salix gooddingii (Goodding's willow), and Typha latifolia (cattail).[11]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b "Granite Mountains". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. Retrieved 2024-09-27.
  2. ^ a b c Krzysik, A.J., 1994. Biodiversity and the Threatened/Endangered/Sensitive Species of Fort Irwin, CA. US Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratories, Champaign, Illinois, Report Number EN-94/07.
  3. ^ Anonymous, 2024. San Bernardino County, Zoning and Overlay Maps, Land Use services, San Bernardino County, California. scale 1 in. = 4 miles.
  4. ^ United States Geological Survey, 2015. Drinkwater Lake Quadrangle California-San Bernardino CO. 7.5 Minute Series (Topographic), scale 1:24000
  5. ^ United States Geological Survey, 1951. Tiefort Mountains Quadrangle California-San Bernardino CO. 15 Minute Series (Topographic), scale 1:625000
  6. ^ Topographische Karten aus OpenStreetMap, Erlangen-Nuremberg , Germany, Friedrich-Alexander-University.
  7. ^ Chapman, A.W., 1992. The Origins and Development of the National Training Center, 1976-1984. TRADOC Historical Monograph Series. Fort Monroe, Virginia, Office of the Command Historian United States Army Training and Doctrine Command. 166 pp.
  8. ^ Shown in pink at the Southern California Earthquake Data Center, https://scedc.caltech.edu/earthquake/mojave.html; see also David M. Miller, Christopher M. Menges, and David J. Lidke, Generalized Surficial Geologic Map of the Fort Irwin Area, San Bernardino County, California, 2014, https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2013/1024/b/downloads/ofr2013_1024_b_report.pdf.
  9. ^ Miller et al., 2014, https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2013/1024/b/downloads/ofr2013_1024_b_report.pdf. This publication says that there are metamorphic rocks in the eastern Granite Mountains from the Jurassic period, but the map on page 10 does not show any metamorphic rocks in the Granite Mountains. They form much of the Avawatz Mountains. So also with the map on p. 18 of Jill N. Densmore, Drew C. Thayer, Meghan C. Dick, Peter W. Swarzenski, Lyndsay B. Ball, Celia Z. Rosecrans, and Cordell Johnson, Evaluation of the Characteristics, Discharge, and Water Quality of Selected Springs at Fort Irwin National Training Center, San Bernardino County, California, 2024, https://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2023/5142/sir20235142.pdf
  10. ^ Integrated Natural Resources Management Plan and Environmental Assessment 2006-2011, National Training Center and Fort Irwin, California, https://www.denix.osd.mil/inrmp/denix-files/sites/98/2024/02/NTC-and-Fort-Irwin-INRMP_Rev20Jan06.pdf
  11. ^ Jill N. Densmore, Drew C. Thayer, Meghan C. Dick, Peter W. Swarzenski, Lyndsay B. Ball, Celia Z. Rosecrans, and Cordell Johnson, Evaluation of the Characteristics, Discharge, and Water Quality of Selected Springs at Fort Irwin National Training Center, San Bernardino County, California, Scientific Investigations Report 2023–5142, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Department of the Interior, 2024, https://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2023/5142/sir20235142.pdf
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