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
I can add little to the details given by M. d’Orbigny on the sandstone
formation of this district. (“Voyage” Part Geolog. pages 57-65.) The
cliffs to the south of the river are about two hundred feet in height,
and are composed of sandstone of various tints and degrees of hardness.
One layer, which thinned out at both ends, consisted of earthy matter,
of a pale reddish colour, with some gypsum, and very like (I speak
after comparison of the specimens brought home) Pampean mud: above this
was a layer of compact marly rock with dendritic manganese. Many blocks
of a conglomerate of pumice-pebbles embedded in hard sandstone were
strewed at the foot of the cliff, and had evidently fallen from above.
A few miles N.E. of the town, I found, low down in the sandstone, a
bed, a few inches in thickness, of a white, friable, harsh-feeling
sediment, which adheres to the tongue, is of easy fusibility, and of
little specific gravity; examined under the microscope, it is seen to
be pumiceous tuff, formed of broken transparent crystals. In the cliffs
south of the river, there is, also, a thin layer of nearly similar
nature, but finer grained, and not so white; it might easily have been
mistaken for a calcareous tuff, but it contains no lime: this substance
precisely resembles a most widely extended and thick formation in
Southern Patagonia, hereafter to be described, and which is remarkable
for being partially formed of infusoria. These beds, conjointly with
the conglomerate of pumice, are interesting, as showing the nature of
the volcanic action in the Cordillera during this old tertiary period.
In a bed at the base of the southern cliffs, M. d’Orbigny found two
extinct fresh-water shells, namely, a Unio and Chilina. This bed rested
on one with bones of an extinct rodent, namely, the Megamys
Patagoniensis; and this again on another with extinct marine shells.
The species found by M. d’Orbigny in different parts of this formation
consist of:—
1. Ostrea Patagonica, d’Orbigny, “Voyage, Pal.” (also at St. Fe, and
whole coast of Patagonia). 2. Ostrea Ferrarisi, d’Orbigny, “Voyage,
Pal.” 3. Ostrea Alvarezii, d’Orbigny, “Voyage, Pal.” (also at St. Fe,
and S. Josef). 4. Pecten Patagoniensis, d’Orbigny, “Voyage, Pal.” 5.
Venus Munsterii, d’Orbigny, “Voyage, Pal.” (also at St. Fe). 6. Arca
Bonplandiana, d’Orbigny, “Voyage, Pal.” (also at St. Fe).
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