Improving stable isotope-based reconstructions of Sierra Nevada paleotopography using insights from regional air parcel trajectories

The geodynamic evolution of the Sierra Nevada Mountains of the western US remains subject to debate due to the lack of consensus on the Cenozoic paleoelevation history of the range. The majority of recent studies attempting to quantify the surface uplift history of the Sierra Nevada rely on stable isotope paleoaltimetry methods that often implicitly assume that atmospheric flow interactions with topography can be simply modeled as a Rayleigh distillation process in which air mass trajectories ascend and rainout heavy isotopologues of water (18O and D) across topographic barriers relatively unimpeded. Accordingly, stable isotope paleoaltimetry studies commonly target leeward side paleo-meteoric water proxies to constrain paleotopography of the windward barrier. We present a modern (1979 - 2010) air parcel trajectory analysis using the Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model that shows that the fundamental assumptions of stable isotope paleoaltimetry are often violated in the Sierra Nevada region. Trajectory analysis indicates that westerly air masses are frequently orographically blocked by and redirected around the higher elevations (> 2.5 km) of the Sierra Nevada. As a result, trajectories reaching the Sierran lee commonly travel around, rather than over, the highest range elevations. These blocking and redirection effects are particularly pronounced for leeward sites that are distal (> 150 km) from the Sierran crest but are also evident in trajectory patterns for both windward and proximal leeward locations in the northern Sierra Nevada. In addition, trajectory patterns indicate that much of the Sierran lee receives a non-negligible proportion of annual precipitation from summer storm systems sourced in the subtropical Pacific Ocean and Gulf of California that have little to no interaction with Sierran topography. This trajectory analysis highlights the complexity of orographic precipitation patterns and processes in the Sierra Nevada region and has direct implications for interpretations of regional proxy isotopic records. Specifically, stable isotope methods alone provide only limited insight into the paleoelevation history of the Sierra Nevada and are likely insufficient to resolve elevation gains on the order of 1 - 1.5 km that have been proposed to have resulted from loss of dense, eclogitic material from beneath the southern portion of the range during the Late Cenozoic. As part of this work, we will also model precipitation stable isotopologues along individual trajectories in order to further elucidate the dominant controls on, as well as improve the interpretability of, regional meteoric water and proxy isotopic records.