San Bernardino county with Granite Mountains in three locations

The Granite Mountains is a

mountain range A mountain range or hill range is a series of mountains or hills arranged in a line and connected by high ground. A mountain system or mountain belt is a group of mountain ranges with similarity in form, structure, and alignment that have aris ...

San Bernardino County, California San Bernardino County ( ), officially the County of San Bernardino and sometimes abbreviated as S.B. County, is a County (United States), county located in the Southern California, southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is locat ...

, United States. It lies east of

Victorville Victorville is a city in Victor Valley in San Bernardino County, California. Its population as of the 2020 census was 134,810. Victorville is the principal city of a Victor Valley–based urban area defined by the United States Census Bureau: ...

and Apple Valley, west of

Lucerne Valley Lucerne Valley is a census-designated place (CDP) and valley landform in the southern Mojave Desert, in western San Bernardino County, California. Geography The geographic valley is defined by the surrounding Granite Mountains, Ord Mountains ...

. It is one of three mountain ranges in the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...

to share this name. The range is as much as wide, north-south, and about long from the southwest edge of Fairview Valley to eastern base of Strawberry Peak.United States Geological Survey, 1959, ''San Bernardino Western United States, NI 11-5, 1:25,000'', scale 1:250000 scale.Bortugno, E.J., and Spittler, T.E., 1986
''Geologic map or the San Bernardino quadrande California.''
''Regional Geologic Map,'' RGM-3A, Sacremento, California Division of Mines and Geology, scale 1:250,000.United States Geological Survey, 1971, ''Lucerne Valley Quadrangle California-San Bernardino CO. 7.5 Minute Series (Topographic)'', scale 1:24000 scale

Geography

The highest elevation in the Granite Mountains is at . The peak is not named on USGS topographic maps,United States Geological Survey, 1957, ''Apple Valley Quadrangle California-San Bernardino CO. 15 Minute Series (Topographic)'', scale 1:62500 scale but is called Deadman’s Peak It is not to be confused with the Deadman Hills nearby. A prominent northwest-southeast trending valley splits the Granite Mountains into north and south regions. Small valleys separate the range from Deadman Hills to the west, Sidewinder Mountain to the north, and White Horse Mountain to the east.United States Geological Survey, 1956, ''Lake Arrowhead Quadrangle California-San Bernardino CO. 15 Minute Series (Topographic)'', scale 1:62500 scale The area is in the Granite Mountains Recreation Management Zone, which is part of the

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands, U.S. federal lands. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the BLM oversees more than of land, or one ...

Stoddard/Johnson Valley Special Recreation Management Area. The Granite Mountains all lie within the BLM's Granite Mountain Corridor

Area of Critical Environmental Concern Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) is a conservation ecology program in the Western United States, managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The ACEC program was conceived in the 1976 Federal Lands Policy and Management Act ( ...

and the BLM's Bendire's Thrasher Area of Critical Environmental Concern includes the northern edges of the Granite Mountains.Bureau of Land Management, 2024
''BLM CA Areas of Critical Environmental Concern.''Geospatial Business Platform Hub.
Denver, Colorado, Bureau of Land Management National Operations Center. August 26, 2024. Retrieved September 23, 2024.

Geology

Detailed descriptions and mapping of the geology of the Granite Mountains range are lacking. A 1:250,000 scale geologic map of the region by Bortugno and Spittler shows the area of the Granite mountains north of the Helendale fault zone to consist of

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately 143.1 Mya. ...

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 143.1 to 66 mya (unit), million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era (geology), Era, as well as the longest. At around 77.1 million years, it is the ...

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...

monzonite Monzonite is an igneous intrusive rock, formed by slow cooling of underground magma that has a moderate silica content and is enriched in alkali metal oxides. Monzonite is composed mostly of plagioclase and alkali feldspar. Syenodiorite is an ...

. This geologic map also shows two relatively small roof pendants of

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era is the Era (geology), era of Earth's Geologic time scale, geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous Period (geology), Periods. It is characterized by the dominance of archosaurian r ...

metavolcanic rocks in the northwest Granite Mountains and small roof pendants of upper

Paleozoic The Paleozoic ( , , ; or Palaeozoic) Era is the first of three Era (geology), geological eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. Beginning 538.8 million years ago (Ma), it succeeds the Neoproterozoic (the last era of the Proterozoic Eon) and ends 251.9 Ma a ...

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

and

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...

along the eastern edge of the northern Granite Mountains. The prominent valley separating the northern and southern Granite Mountains contains the trace of the Helendale fault zone. The area of the Granite Mountains south of the Helendale fault zone is shown to consist of Jurassic or Cretaceous

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

adjacent to the Helendale fault zone and the bilk of this area consisting of

Triassic The Triassic ( ; sometimes symbolized 🝈) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.5 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.4 Mya. The Triassic is t ...

monzonite. Dibblee and Minch Dibblee, T.W., and Minch, J.A., 2008
''Geological Map of the Lake Arrowhead & Lucerne Valley 15 minute quadrangles.''
San Bernardino County, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. scale 1:62500 further described the plutonic rocks in the southern Granite Mountains as being nearly white, buff to light grey weathering, hard, massive, medium- to locally coarse-grained gneissoid granite and quartz monzonite.

Geomorphology

At the south end of Fairview Valley in the Granite Mountains, BowenBowen Jr, O.E., 1954. ''Geology and mineral deposits of Barstow quadrangle, San Bernardino County, California.'' ''California Division of Mines Bulletin.'' 165, pp.1-185. noted that typical exposures of quartz monzonite consisted of rounded, often rhomboidal,

boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In ...

s. He concluded that these boulders developed by weathering taking place along

joints A joint or articulation (or articular surface) is the connection made between bones, ossicles, or other hard structures in the body which link an animal's skeletal system into a functional whole.Saladin, Ken. Anatomy & Physiology. 7th ed. McGraw- ...

of blocks of

bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid rock that lies under loose material ( regolith) within the crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface material. An exposed portion of bed ...

defined by rectangular joint systems. Virtually identical quartz monzonite and granite boulder-mantled slopes characterize not only the Granite Mountains, but also, adjacent and regional mountains in the western Mojave Desert. It is argued that these boulders were originally

corestone Spheroidal weathering is a form of chemical weathering that affects jointed bedrock and results in the formation of concentric or spherical layers of highly decayed rock within weathered bedrock that is known as ''saprolite.'' When saprolite ...

s in thick,

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, water, and organisms that together support the life of plants and soil organisms. Some scientific definitions distinguish dirt from ''soil'' by re ...

s that once blanketed the Granite Mountains and other ranges of the western Mojave Desert region. As the regional climate became arid, the deep weathering that produced both the soils and corestones ceased and wind and sheetflow

eroded Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is disti ...

the finer grained weathered bedrock leaving the corestones behind as an erosional lag of regionally extensive boulder-mantled slopes.Oberlander, T.M., 1972. ''Morphogenesis of granitic boulder slopes in the Mojave Desert, California''. ''The Journal of Geology '', 80(1), pp.1-20. Bowen also observed what he inferred are the eroded remnants of a probable

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

paleosurface In geology and geomorphology a paleosurface is a surface made by erosion of considerable antiquity. Paleosurfaces might be flat or uneven in some cases having considerable relief. Flat and large paleosurfaces —that is planation surfaces— have ...

at the summit of the Granite Mountains. He estimated that it lies over feet above local base levels.

Wind energy project

Renewable Energy Systems proposed 28

wind turbines A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each y ...

in the northeastern Granite Mountains; the project was withdrawn in 2013 due to the presence of

golden eagle The golden eagle (''Aquila chrysaetos'') is a bird of prey living in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most widely distributed species of eagle. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. They are one of the best-known bird of pr ...

nests nearby.Anonymous, 2013
Granite Mountain Wind Energy ProjectBasin & Range Watch
August 3, 2013. Retrieved September 24, 2024.

Biology

The wind energy project

Environmental Impact Assessment Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is the assessment of the environmental impact, environmental consequences of a plan, policy, program, or actual projects prior to the decision to move forward with the proposed action. In this context, the te ...

included a survey of plants and animals. Plants in the proposed project area include the

Joshua tree ''Yucca brevifolia'' (also known as the Joshua tree, yucca palm, tree yucca, and palm tree yucca) is a plant species belonging to the genus '' Yucca''. It is tree-like in habit, which is reflected in its common names. This monocotyledonous tre ...

and other ''

Yucca ''Yucca'' ( , YUCK-uh) is both the scientific name and common name for a genus native to North America from Panama to southern Canada. It contains 50 accepted species. In addition to yucca, they are also known as Adam's needle or Spanish-bayon ...

'' species, ''

Cymopterus ''Cymopterus'' is a genus of perennial plants in the family Apiaceae native to western North America. They are commonly known as the spring parsleys

panamintensis'', ''

Eriogonum fasciculatum ''Eriogonum fasciculatum'' is a species of wild buckwheat known by the common names California buckwheat and flat-topped buckwheat. Characterized by small, white and pink flower clusters that give off a cottony effect, this species grows vari ...

'', ''

Larrea tridentata ''Larrea tridentata'', called creosote bush, greasewood, and chaparral is a medicinal herb. In Sonora, it is more commonly called ''hediondilla''; Spanish ''hediondo'' = "smelly". It is a flowering plant in the family Zygophyllaceae. The specific ...

'', and ''

Cryptantha ''Cryptantha'' is a genus of flowering plants in the borage family, Boraginaceae. They are known commonly as cat's eyes and popcorn flowers (the latter name is also used to refer to the Affinity (taxonomy), closely related genus ''Plagiobothrys' ...

clokeyi''. Animal species include '' Papilio indra'' (Indra's Swallowtail),

American white pelican The American white pelican (''Pelecanus erythrorhynchos'') is a large aquatic soaring bird from the order Pelecaniformes. It breeds in interior North America, moving south and to the coasts, as far as Costa Rica, in winter. Taxonomy The Americ ...

(''Pelecanus erythrorhynchos''),

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche ...

(''Haliaeetus leucocephalus''), Bendire's thrasher (''Toxostoma bendirei''),

(''Aquila chrysaetos''),

loggerhead shrike The loggerhead shrike (''Lanius ludovicianus'') is a passerine bird in the family Laniidae. It is the only member of the shrike family endemic to North America; the related northern shrike (''L. borealis'') occurs north of its range, however it ...

(''Lanius ludovicianus''),

Northern harrier The northern harrier (''Circus hudsonius''), also known as the marsh hawk or ring-tailed hawk, is a bird of prey. It breeds throughout the northern parts of the northern hemisphere in Canada and the northernmost United States, USA. The northern ...

(''Circus cyaneus''), Swainson’s hawk (''Buteo swainsoni''),

willow flycatcher The willow flycatcher (''Empidonax traillii'') is a small insect-eating, neotropical migrant bird of the tyrant flycatcher family native to North America. Taxonomy There are four subspecies recognized, all of which breed in North America (i ...

(''Empidonax traillii''),

yellow warbler The yellow warbler (''Setophaga petechia'') is a New World warbler species. Yellow warblers are the most widespread species in the diverse genus ''Setophaga'', breeding in almost the whole of North America, the Caribbean, as well as northern So ...

(''Dendroica petechia''),

burrowing owl The burrowing owl (''Athene cunicularia''), also called the shoco, is a small, long-legged, primarily terrestrial—though not flightless—species of owl native to the open landscapes of North and South America. They are typically found in gra ...

(''Athene cunicularia''),

Pallid bat The pallid bat (''Antrozous pallidus'') is a species of bat that ranges from western Canada to central Mexico. It is the sole species of its genus and is closely related to Van Gelder's bat (''Bauerus dubiaquercus''), which is sometimes includ ...

(''Antrozous pallidus''),

Townsend's big-eared bat Townsend's big-eared bat (''Corynorhinus townsendii'') is a species of vesper bat. Description Townsend's big-eared bat is a medium-sized bat (7–12 g)

(''Plecotus townsendii''), and

desert tortoise The desert tortoise (''Gopherus agassizii'') is a species of tortoise in the Family (biology), family Testudinidae. The species is native to the Mojave Desert, Mojave and Sonoran Deserts of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico ...

(''Gopherus agassizii'').United States Department of the Interior, 2010.
United States Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management & County of San Bernardino Draft Environmental Impact Statement/Environmental Impact Report (EIS/EIR) for the Granite Mountain Wind Energy Project
', volume 1, Report for United States Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management, Barstow Field Office, Barstow, California.426 pp. The biological survey was in Appendix F, which was published as a CD, and does not seem to be available on the internet. Some of the birds were notable not because they live there, but because they fly through the area where the

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that wind power, converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of list of most powerful wind turbines, large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over ...

s are proposed.

References

{{coord, 34, 32, N, 117, 02, W, type:mountain_region:US-CA, display=title Mountain ranges of Southern California Mountain ranges of San Bernardino County, California Mountain ranges of the Mojave Desert