The University of California operates the Granite Mountain Natural Reserve on 9000 acres of land within the Mojave National Preserve. The Granite Mountains Natural Reserve is a research and teaching center that was established by the late Professor Dr. Kenneth Norris of U.C. Santa Cruz in 1978 and is now managed out of UC Riverside. Students and faculty have completed extensive studies of the natural history of the Granite Mountains since the reserve's inception. This is one of 37 reserves in the UC Natural Reserve System.
Some of the more striking rock formations in the Mojave National Preserve lie in the Granite Mountains. These granitic rocks have eroded into unusual rounded shapes that include spires, perched boulders, and curved cliff faces.
Granitic rocks represent the roots of ancient continental-margin volcanic systems. Most of the granitic rock in the Mojave Desert is late Mesozoic in age (80 to 180 million years old). The granites formed at depth within a volcanically active mountain range comparable in geologic setting to the Andes chain in South America.
The granitoids formed by the slow cooling and solidification of molten magma bodies that developed above sinking slabs of oceanic crust overridden by the edge of the continent. At least 55 or 60 million years elapsed between the crystallization of the last Mesozoic magma bodies and deposition of the youngest-preserved overlying strata.
Several springs exist in the Granite Mountains, though they may not flow year round.
