Geological Observations on South AmericaDarwin, Charles
Science
Geological Observations on South America
Darwin, Charles
Beagle Expedition (1831-1836); Geology -- South America; Mollusks, Fossil -- South America; Paleontology
For some distance northward of Buenos Ayres, the escarpment of the
Pampean formation does not approach very near to the Plata, and it is
concealed by vegetation: but in sections on the banks of the Rios
Luxan, Areco, and Arrecifes, I observed both pale and dark reddish
Pampean mud, with small, whitish concretions of tosca; at all these
places mammiferous remains have been found. In the cliffs on the
Parana, at San Nicolas, the Pampean mud contains but little tosca; here
M. d’Orbigny found the remains of two rodents (Ctenomys Bonariensis and
Kerodon antiquus) and the jaw of a Canis: when on the river I could
clearly distinguish in this fine line of cliffs, “horizontal lines of
variation both in tint and compactness.” (I quote these words from my
note-book, as written down on the spot, on account of the general
absence of stratification in the Pampean formation having been insisted
on by M. d’Orbigny as a proof of the diluvial origin of this great
deposit.) The plain northward of this point is very level, but with
some depressions and lakes; I estimated its height at from forty to
sixty feet above the Parana. At the A. Medio the bright red Pampean mud
contains scarcely any tosca-rock; whilst at a short distance the stream
of the Pabon, forms a cascade, about twenty feet in height, over a
cavernous mass of two varieties of tosca-rock; of which one is very
compact and semi- crystalline, with seams of crystallised carbonate of
lime: similar compact varieties are met with on the Salidillo and Seco.
The absolute identity (I speak after a comparison of my specimens)
between some of these varieties, and those from Tapalguen, and from the
ridge south of Bahia Blanca, a distance of 400 miles of latitude, is
very striking.
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