Nevadan orogeny related to the accretion of these volcanic arc terranes is mostly limited to the western regions of the resulting mountain ranges (Klamath Mountain range and Sierra Nevada Mountains) and is absent from the eastern regions. In addition, the deformation experienced in these mountain ranges is mostly due to the Nevadan orogeny and not other external events such as the more recent Sevier and Laramide Orogenies. It is noted that the Klamath Mountains and the Sierra Nevada mountains share similar stratigraphy indicating that they were both formed by the Nevadan orogeny. In comparison with other orogenic events, it appears that the
Sonoma orogeny arcs, composed of volcanic and volcaniclastic strata and paired geotectonically with Sonoma accretionary prisms to the east, are present in the Klamath-Sierran region of the Cordilleran orogen to the south of volcanic cover in the Pacific Northwest. Burchfiel and Davis presented a detailed model relating the Sonoma orogeny to convergent plate tectonic processes. They postulated an east-dipping subduction zone beneath a magmatic arc to the west of the continent. In this scheme, a back-arc basin floored by oceanic crust lay between the arc and the continent. The Sonoma orogeny involved closure of this basin and a process by which the