Paleobotanical evidence for high altitudes in Nevada during the miocene
Wolfe JA, Schorn HE, Forest CE, Molnar P. 1997. Paleobotanical evidence for high altitudes in Nevada during the miocene. Science. 276(5319):1672-1675
Leaf physiognomy provides estimates of environmental parameters, including mean annual enthalpy, which is a thermodynamic parameter of the atmosphere that varies with altitude. Analyses of 12 mid-Miocene floras from western Nevada indicate that this part of the Basin and Range Province stood ~3 kilometers above sea level at 15 to 16 million years ago, which is 1 to 1.5 kilometers higher than its present altitude. Much, if not all, of the collapse to present-day altitudes seems to have been achieved by ~13 million years ago. The crust in much of this area has been extended and thinned throughout the past 40 to 50 million years, and the isostatic balance of a thinning crust requires subsidence, not uplift as suggested by previous paleobotanical work.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Wolfe, Jack; Schorn, Howard; Forest, Chris; Molnar, Peter
- Units
- YOSE
- Keywords
- Floras, leaf physiognomy, paleobotanical, Physical Sciences, Plant Studies