During the Miocene, changes in the tectonic regime may have caused a collapse and dismemberment of the Nevadaplano. Tectonic extension gave rise to the Basin and Range province and separated the Sierra Nevada-Great Valley block from the Nevadaplano, forming today's landscape.
The existence of the Nevadaplano was proposed in 2004 by DeCelleshigh plateau of South America.[3] It is also known as the "Great Basin Altiplano".[4] Unlike the present-day Andean Altiplano and Tibetan plateau, the Nevadaplano was dismembered during the Cenozoic and thus its structure and evolution are poorly understood.[5]
The Nevadaplano probably formed as part of either the
The Nevadaplano underwent
By far the most significant stage of extension was the later[18] episode of east–west extension and northwestward shearing,[1] which was underway by 16-17 million years ago[19] and continues to a lesser extent today. That extension probably caused the high plateau to lose elevation. The heat flow from the Yellowstone hotspot is one mechanism that has could have caused the collapse process.[17] Also during the Miocene, the Sierra Nevada-Great Valley block separated from the Nevadaplano and was tilted to the west along the Sierra Escarpment,[20] beheading a number of westward-going drainages in the process.[19] Former drainages of the Nevadaplano were buried by volcanic rocks and disrupted by tectonic processes.[21] Farther east, the dismemberment of the drainages may have created suitable environments for the evolution of sucker fish.[22]
Miocene extension also created the well-known
The Nevadaplano was located in present-day
The Nevadaplano probably drained to
Some
West of the Nevadaplano stood the Sierra Nevada, which was volcanically active[1] until 80 million years ago[42] and featured exposed batholiths from former volcanism. Its exact elevation at the time is unclear, with alternate models proposing either that it had already reached a height similar to today's Sierra Nevada or that it rose to present-day height in the Miocene and Pliocene.[12] Alternatively, the Luning-Fencemaker fold-and-thrust belt may have formed the western boundary.[43]
It probably did not constitute a
Remnants of the
During the Miocene, volcanic activity covered the Nevadaplano with
The underlying
Based on the fossils found in the
Evidence suggests that lakes and