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
In the peninsula of Lacuy, the strata over a width of four miles have
been upheaved by three distinct, and some other indistinct, lines of
elevation, ranging within a point of north and south. One line, about
two hundred feet in height, is regularly anticlinal, with the strata
dipping away on both sides, at an angle of 15 degrees, from a central
“valley of elevation,” about three hundred yards in width. A second
narrow steep ridge, only sixty feet high, is uniclinal, the strata
throughout dipping westward; those on both flanks being inclined at an
angle of from ten to fifteen degrees; whilst those on the ridge dip in
the same direction at an angle of between thirty and forty degrees.
This ridge, traced northwards, dies away; and the beds at its terminal
point, instead of dipping westward, are inclined 12 degrees to the
north. This case interested me, as being the first in which I found in
South America, formations perhaps of tertiary origin, broken by lines
of elevation.
VALDIVIA: ISLAND OF MOCHA.
The formations of Chiloe seem to extend with nearly the same character
to Valdivia, and for some leagues northward of it: the underlying rocks
are micaceous schists, and are covered up with sandstone and other
sedimentary beds, including, as I was assured, in many places layers of
lignite. I did not land on Mocha (latitude 38 degrees 20 minutes), but
Mr. Stokes brought me specimens of the grey, fine-grained, slightly
calcareous sandstone, precisely like that of Huafo, containing lignite
and numerous Turritellae. The island is flat topped, 1,240 feet in
height, and appears like an outlier of the sedimentary beds on the
mainland. The few shells collected consist of:—
1. Turritella Chilensis, G.B. Sowerby (also at Huafo). 2. Fusus, very
imperfect, somewhat resembling F. subreflexus of Navidad, but probably
different. 3. Venus, fragments of.
CONCEPCION.
Sailing northward from Valdivia, the coast-cliffs are seen, first to
assume near the R. Tolten, and thence for 150 miles northward, to be
continued with the same mineralogical characters, immediately to be
described at Concepcion. I heard in many places of beds of lignite,
some of it fine and glossy, and likewise of silicified wood; near the
Tolten the cliffs are low, but they soon rise in height; and the
horizontal strata are prolonged, with a nearly level surface, until
coming to a more lofty tract between points Rumena and Lavapie. Here
the beds have been broken up by at least eight or nine parallel lines
of elevation, ranging E. or E.N.E. and W. or W.S.W. These lines can be
followed with the eye many miles into the interior; they are all
uniclinal, the strata in each dipping to a point between S. and S.S.E.
with an inclination in the central lines of about forty degrees, and in
the outer ones of under twenty degrees. This band of symmetrically
troubled country is about eight miles in width.
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