Their lower elevations and south-facing slopes characteristically are more sparsely covered by yucca, cacti, creosote, and other shrubs.

[4][5] The University of California, Riverside, operates the Sweeney Granite Mountains Desert Research Center within the Mojave National Preserve.

Students and faculty have completed extensive studies of the natural history of the Granite Mountains since the reserve's inception.

At the higher elevations, small roof pendants composed of either Paleozoic dolomite, limestone, or marble occur enclosed within the Mesozoic intrusive rocks.

Along the east side of the Granite Mountains, outcrops of the quartz monzonite contains phenocrysts of medium-grained, lavender, potassium feldspar.

[4][6][7] Geobarometric studies indicate shallow crustal depths, 5.6 to 4.3 mi (9.0 to 6.9 km) below the surface, for intrustion and solidification of a Late Jurassic pluton from the nearby southern Providence Mountains.

Within the western part of the Granite Mountains, the granodiorite pluton forms a sheet-like intrusion that dips west at moderate angles.

[4][6] Estimates made from geobarometry indicate mid-crustal depths, about 10.5 to 12 mi (16.9 to 19.3 km) below the surface, of intrusion and solidification for the Cretaceous plutons of the Granite Mountains.

[4][6][7] The geologic history that is recorded in the outcropping rocks of the Granite Mountains and surrounding Mojave Desert region spans more than 1,760 million years.

[4][8] During the latest Proterozoic, Paleozoic, and early Mesozoic, this part of the Mojave Desert was a passive margin along the western edge of the North American craton.

Within this passive margin, sedimentary strata accumulated lying unconformably across a deeply eroded surface underlian by Proterozoic gneissic and granitic rocks.

These sedimentary rocks accumulated in marine and, less commonly, continental environments along the western edge of the North American craton.

calc-silicate hornfel xenolith and limestone, dolomite, and marble roof pendants found within the Granite Mountains are all that remain of this once several kilometer-thick blanket of passive margin sedimentary strata that covered this region.

[4][8] Beginning in the Mesozoic, widespread magmatism affected the region as ancient continental-margin volcanic arcs formed parallel to the western edge of the North America craton.

The Cretaceous granodiorite and monzogranite exposed in the Granite Mountains were intruded and solidified about 10.5 to 12 mi (16.9 to 19.3 km) below the surface during this period.

This tectonism formed mountain ranges that were uplifted and subsequently deeply eroded as to remove all traces of Mesozoic volcanoes and their deposits in this region.

Also, further uplifting occurred such that extensive erosion produced broad pediment domes in the Granite Mountains region.

During the Quaternary erosion has continued to lower the pediment domes and mountain ranges and to supply sediments to adjacent valleys.

At this mine, silver, copper, lead, and zinc minerals are dispersed along joints and in quartz veins in granitic bedrock.