We present U-Pb geochronologic and Hf isotopic data from 29 plutonic samples within the Coast Mountain batholith, north-coastal British Columbia and southeast Alaska. Hf isotopic values do not correlate with age or variation in magmatic fl ux, but rather they increase systematically from west (ε Hf [t] = +2 to +5) to east (ε Hf [t] = +10 to +13) in response to changing country rock assemblages. By comparing our pluton Hf data with previously reported Nd-Sr and detrital zircon characteristics of associated country rocks, we identify three crustal domains in an area where crustal affi nity is largely obscured by metamorphism and voluminous pluton intrusion: (1) a western domain, emplaced into continental-margin strata of the Banks Island assemblage; (2) a central domain, emplaced into the Alexander terrane; and (3) an eastern domain, underlain by the Stikine terrane and its inferred metamorphic equivalents. Between the interpreted Alexander and Stikine terranes, there is a zone of variable ε Hf (t) (+2 to +13) that coincides with the suture zone separating inboard (Stikine and Yukon-Tanana) from outboard (Alexander and associated) terranes. This variation in ε Hf (t) values apparently results from the structural imbrication of juvenile (Alexander and Stikine) and evolved (Yukon-Tanana) terranes along mid-Cretaceous thrust faults and the latest Cretaceous-early Tertiary Coast shear zone. Shifts in the Hf values of plutons across inferred terranes imply that they are separated at lower-to midcrustal levels by steep boundaries. Correlation between these Hf values and the isotopic character of exposed country rocks further implies the presence of those or similar rocks at magma-generation depths.

The growth of the Coast Mountains batholith has been documented as episodic through time, and it has become a type example of a continental arc system that developed through non‐steady‐state magmatism. The magmatic record, however, is not well known along the length of the arc, hindering evaluation of the processes controlling the tempo and patterns of batholith growth. A new, robust geochronologic database (485 U‐Pb zircon and titanite ages, 120 of which are newly presented herein) covering nearly 1,000 km of arc length reveals significant along‐strike variation in the tempo of batholith emplacement, the timing of arc cessation, and the arc cooling history. Zircon ages range from ~180 to 40 Ma along the length of the arc and overlap with titanite ages, with the exception of parts of the central batholith where Eocene extension and exhumation of lower crustal rocks led to a more complex history. New analysis of zircon ages reveals significant along‐strike differences in the timing of high flux magmatic events. Small‐scale (<150 km) intra‐arc variations in magmatic tempo suggest that small‐scale processes, likely operating within the arc system, appear to have driven the episodic growth of the Coast Mountains batholith. In contrast, rates of Cretaceous‐Paleogene eastward arc migration are consistently ~2.5 km/Myr along the length of the arc. These rates are similar to those documented in North American arc systems, which suggests that arc migration has an external, plate‐scale driver and/or is an intrinsic, self‐modulating feature of most continental arcs.

Apatite and zircon (U-Th)/He ages from a 100-km-long range-perpendicular transect in the northern Sierra Nevada, California, are used to constrain the exhumation history of the range since ca. 90 Ma. (U-Th)/He ages in apatite decrease from 80 Ma along the low western range fl anks to 46 Ma in the higher elevations to the east. (U-Th)/He ages in zircon also show a weak inverse correlation with elevation, decreasing from 91 Ma in the west to 66 Ma in the east. Rocks near the range crest, sampled at elevations of 2200-2500 m, yield the youngest apatite helium ages (46-55 Ma), whereas zircon helium ages are more uniform across the divide. These data reveal relatively rapid cooling rates between ca. 90 and 60 Ma, which are consistent with relatively rapid exhumation rates of 0.2-0.8 km/m.y., followed by a long period of slower exhumation (0.02-0.04 km/ m.y.) from the early Paleogene to today. This is refl ected in the low-relief morphology of the northern Sierra Nevada, where an Eocene erosional surface has long been identifi ed. A long period of slow exhumation is also consistent with well-documented, widespread lateritic paleosols at the base of Eocene depositional units. Laterites preserved in the northern Sierra Nevada are the product of intense weathering in a subtropical environment and suggest an enduring, soil-mantled topography. We interpret this exhumation history as recording a Late Cretaceous to early Cenozoic period of relatively rapid uplift and unroofi ng followed by tectonic quiescence and erosional smoothing of Sierran topography through the Neogene. Well-documented recent incision appears to have had little effect on (U-Th)/He ages, suggesting that less than ~3 km has been eroded from the Sierra Nevada since the early Cenozoic.

Major element, trace element and Nd^Sr isotopic data are presented for 82 plutonic rocks from the southern Coast Mountains Batholith (CMB) in British Columbia, Canada, ranging in emplacement age from 210 to 50 Ma. The rocks are part of a large composite magmatic arc batholith, which the major element data show to be of calc-alkaline affinity. The majority of CMB samples lack the depletion in Eu that would be consistent with equilibration of magmas and plagioclase-bearing crystalline residues or fractionates, suggesting that equilibration took place deeper than the pressure limit of plagioclase stability at 35^40 km depth. The CMB samples show a wide variation in the slope of normalized rare earth element (REE) patterns, with chondrite-normalized La/Yb ratios above 10 being mostly confined to periods of high magmatic flux in the arc at 160^140, 120^80, and 60^50 Ma. The clearest relationships between major and trace elements are negative correlations between SiO 2 and each of Sc, Y, and the heavier REE Gd to Lu. Nd and Sr isotopes mostly document juvenile origins for the granitoids, but show variations to higher 87 Sr/ 86 Sr and lower e Nd during high-flux periods. The results are interpreted to indicate a deep origin for most CMB magmas, below $40 km where mafic to intermediate rock assemblages previously added to the arc crust by mantle melting were transformed to an (amphibole-bearing)eclogite facies cumulate or restite, such that melting residues consisted mainly of two pyroxenes, garnet and variable proportions of amphibole. Thickened orogenic crust, for which there is clear geological evidence during the period 100^80 Ma, promoted this process. During high-flux periods, larger amounts of older rocks, mostly mafic rocks and some metasediments added to the base of the arc during orogenic shortening, became involved in magma genesis.

Thermomechanical models of mantle lithosphere removal from beneath the southern Sierra Nevada region, California (USA), predict a complex spatiotemporal pattern of vertical surface displacements. We evaluate these models by using (U-Th)/He thermochronometry, together with other paleothermometry estimates, to investigate such topographic transients. We target Tertiary strata from the Kern arch, a crescent-shaped active uplift located in the southeastern San Joaquin Basin, along the western fl ank of the southern Sierra Nevada. Kern arch stratigraphy provides a unique record of subsidence and exhumation in a sensitive region immediately adjacent to the delaminating mantle lithosphere at depth. Detrital apatite (U-Th)/He ages from Oligocene-Miocene sandstones collected in Kern arch well cores indicate postdepositional heating to temperatures beyond those corresponding with their present burial depths. When integrated with available geologic and stratigraphic constraints, temperature-time modeling of thermo chronometric data suggests partial He loss from apatites at temperatures of 70-90 °C, followed by exhumation to present burial temperatures of 35-60 °C since ca. 6 Ma. By constraining the late Cenozoic geothermal gradient to ~25 °C/km, our results imply 1.0-1.6 km of rapid (~0.4 mm/yr) subsidence and sedimentation, and then subsequent uplift and exhumation of southeastern San Joaquin Basin strata in latest Miocene-Quaternary time. Stratigraphic and geomorphic relations further constrain the principal burial episode to ca. 2.5 Ma or later, and exhumation to ca. 1 Ma or later. Subtle differences in the maximum temperatures achieved in various wells may refl ect differing degrees of tectonic subsidence and sedimentation as a function of growth faulting and distance from the range front. Our results are consistent with estimates of surface subsidence and uplift from Sierran delamination models, which predict a minimum of ~0.7 km of tectonic subsidence in regions retaining mantle lithosphere adjacent to the area of delamination, and a minimum of ~0.8 km of rock uplift in regions where delamination occurred recently. We attribute the marked pulse of tectonic subsidence in the San Joaquin Basin to viscous coupling between the lower crust and a downwelling mass in the delaminating slab. The ensuing episode of exhumation is interpreted to result from the northwestward peeling back of the slab and the associated replacement of dense lithosphere with buoyant asthenosphere that drove rapid rock and surface uplift.