The Rescue Lineament-Bear Mountains fault zone, in eastern California, is a series of co-axial faults located in the western foothills of the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

( mountain range).https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqscanv/fault/197.html USGS . accessed 12.2.2010 The fault zone represents an ancient suture, the boundary where an ancient oceanic crustal block known as an exotic terrane, named by geologists the Smartville Block, collided with and attached to the North American Plate. Gold To the west of the ancient suture/fault zone the Mother Lode, of the

California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California fro ...

, was found in the Smartville Block's Ophiolite oceanic crust material.

References

External links

USGS: Rescue Lineament-Bear Mountains fault zone – location map
{{California Faults Seismic faults of California Geology of California Sierra Nevada (United States) Geography of Amador County, California Geography of Calaveras County, California Geography of El Dorado County, California Geography of Mariposa County, California Geography of Tuolumne County, California Geography of Yuba County, California