Sierra Nevada

A very sueeessful projeet began in the early 1980s when the Ben Holt Company (Pasadena, California) designed and eonstrueted a 10 MW air-eooled, elosed-loop binary eyele at their Mammoth Geothermal Plant, loeated on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California. 

Blum, J. D., Erel, Y., and Brown, K. (1994). Sr/ Sr ratios of Sierra Nevada stream waters Implications for relative mineral weathering rates. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 58,5019-5025. 

LeNoir J, Aston L, Datta S, et al. 1998. Pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls in Sierra Nevada ecosystems Potential relationship to decline of amphibians. Division of Environmental Chemistry Preprints of Extended Abstracts 38(2) 264-266. 

A study of Cladonia cervicornis (Achar.) Flotow from two widely disjunct populations in California, one from coastal Mendocino County and one from the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in Amador County, revealed a difference in the frequency of occurrence of the depside atranorin [245] (see Fig. 2.76) (Hammer and Ahti, 1990). The compound, considered to be a primitive feature of this lichen species, was present in 80% of the... 

The coastal race conforms to P. menziesii var. menziesii, whereas the inland races accord well with P. menziesii var. glauca (Beissn.) Franco, the form known from the Rocky Mountains. There is no established morphological equivalent to the Sierra Nevada race trees from that area are usually referred to var. menziesii. Zavarin and Snajberk (1975), however, sununarized differences between trees harvested in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and those harvested in northwestern California with regard to commercial applications, particularly in the manufacture of plywood or the production of composite materials (particle board). Differences in such factors... 

Figure 1.4. Phase diagram for the system K O-AfCVSiCVF O at 25 °C and 1 atmosphere. Open circles are analytical data for water from springs or seeps in a granitic terrain in the Sierra Nevada (from Feth and others) (%) (from Birkeland, 1984, after Feth and others, 1964. Reprinted from Soils and Geomorphology, pill, Copyright (1984), with permission from Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford)...

Feth J.H., Roberson G.E., Polzer W.L. Sources of mineral constituents in water from granitic rocks, Sierra Nevada, California and Nevada. US Geol Surv Water Supply Pap 1964,1535-M. 

We choose as a first example the evaporation of spring water from the Sierra Nevada mountains of California and Nevada, USA, as modeled by Garrels and Mackenzie (1967). Their hand calculation, the first reaction path traced in geochemistry (see Chapter 1), provided the inspiration for Helgeson s (1968 and later) development of computerized methods for reaction modeling. 

Table 24.1. Mean composition of spring water from the Sierra Nevada, California and Nevada, USA (Garrels and Mackenzie, 1967)...

Fig. 24.1. Volumes of minerals (amorphous silica, calcite, and sepiolite) precipitated during a reaction model simulating at 25 °C the evaporation of Sierra Nevada spring water in equilibrium with atmospheric C02, plotted against the concentration factor. For example, a concentration factor of x 100 means that of the original 1 kg of water, 10 grams remain.

Fig. 24.2. Calculated effects of evaporation at 25 °C on the chemistry of Sierra Nevada spring water. Top figures show how pH and ionic strength vary over the reaction path in Figure 24.1 bottom figure shows variation in the fluid s bulk composition.

McConnell, L.L., J.S. LeNoir, S. Datta, and J.N. Seiber. 1998. Wet deposition of current-use pesticides in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, California, USA. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 17 1908-1916. 

The Sacramento Valley is a tectonically controlled basin bounded on the east by the Sierra Nevada, on the west by the Coast Ranges, and on the north by the Klamath Mountains. The alluvium of the valley reflects inputs from these bounding... 

The deposits of the San Joaquin Valley are derived from the Sierra Nevada on the East and the Coast Range on the West. The Sierra Nevada, a fault block that dips... 

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