In the image above, click the green right arrow to go forward and the red left arrow to go back in time. When going forward, the old land surface rises up as a black outline, showing how much erosion is occuring. A large orange arrow indicates the tectonic uplift (change in forces supporting the range, as opposed to uplift in response to erosion). The color bars in the mountains are each about 1 km thick. The reddish solid line indicates the mean elevation.
The evolution of the Sierra as envisioned by Small and Anderson, where late Cenozoic uplift is a combination of isostatic rebound from incision in the Sierra and uplift as the Great Valley subsides under sediments. Total erosion matched to that inferred from the He closure temperatures. At 10 Ma, a volcanic flow fills the highest river channel (shown as an orange body). This channel is now about 1 km above the modern channel, a relationship shown as the orange body rises up during erosion. No tectonic uplift in the past 10 My was assumed. Low erosion along the high elevations assumed post 10 Ma. The small "tectonic" uplift post 10 Ma is from flexural uplift from subsidence of the Great Valley, otherwise no tectonic uplift is assumed. The 50 Ma plot simply carries relief reduction farther back in time.
This cartoon illustrates the evolution of an area in the vicinity of the modern San Joaquin River. This reconstruction requires incredibly deep narrow canyons prior to late Tertiary canyon widening, and very little erosion of the canyon bottoms. This seems in conflict with meanders preserved in ~10 Ma volcanic channels and measurements of late Cenozoic erosion in the Sierra.