Mecca Hills viewed from the East off Box Canyon Road. The Mecca Hills are composed of highly folded sedimentary layers from the Pliocene and Pleistocene (1 to 5 Ma).
Box Canyon Road at the Mecca Hills near Shavers Well. Orocopia Schist is to the far right.
Orocopia Schist at Shavers Well. This is metamorphic rock formed from graywacke, mudstone and volcanic rocks deposited on the seafloor of the Farallon Plate during late Mesozoic and early Cenozoic time (70-20 Ma).
Detail of Orocopia Schist layers. Sediments from the Farallon Plate were subducted and metamorphosed by heat and pressure beneath the North American Plate and then uplifted with parts of the overlying Proterozoic gneiss of the North American plate.
Detail of Orocopia Schist showing foliation.
Road cut along Box Canyon Road exposes layers of alluvial deposits from streams that were deposited over the last 6 million years.
Detail of alluvial fan deposits with granite boulders, gravel and sand layers along the road cut of Box Canyon Road.
Uplifted layers of lower Palm Spring Formation Sandstone and gray siltstone beds along Box Canyon Road were deposited 5.3 to 2.5 Ma ago during the Pliocene Epoch. The were lifted and tilted by ongoing forces of the Pacific Plate subduction.
Layers of Palm Spring Formation sandstone and siltstone beds along Box Canyon Road.
The view from Painted Canyon Road looking East towards the Mecca Hills. The San Andreas fault runs through lower areas in front of the road.
This photo was taken from a small hill next to Interstate-15 in Cajon Pass between the San Bernardino and San Gabriel Mountains. The photo is facing Northwest looking up Lone Pine Canyon where the San Andreas Fault runs. See next photo that is labeled.
The San Andreas Fault at Cajon Pass runs through Lone Pine Canyon.
