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
NAVIDAD. (I was guided to this locality by the Report on M. Gay’s
“Geological Researches” in the “Annales des Scienc. Nat.” 1st series
tome 28.)
The Concepcion formation extends some distance northward, but how far I
know not; for the next point at which I landed was at Navidad, 160
miles north of Concepcion, and 60 miles south of Valparaiso. The cliffs
here are about eight hundred feet in height: they consist, wherever I
could examine them, of fine-grained, yellowish, earthy sandstones, with
ferruginous veins, and with concretions of hard calcareous sandstone.
In one part, there were many pebbles of the common metamorphic
porphyries of the Cordillera: and near the base of the cliff, I
observed a single rounded boulder of greenstone, nearly a yard in
diameter. I traced this sandstone formation beneath the superficial
covering of gravel, for some distance inland: the strata are slightly
inclined from the sea towards the Cordillera, which apparently has been
caused by their having been accumulated against or round outlying
masses of granite, of which some points project near the coast. The
sandstone contains fragments of wood, either in the state of lignite or
partially silicified, sharks’ teeth, and shells in great abundance,
both high up and low down the sea-cliffs. Pectunculus and Oliva were
most numerous in individuals, and next to them Turritella and Fusus. I
collected in a short time, though suffering from illness, the following
thirty-one species, all of which are extinct, and several of the genera
do not now range (as we shall hereafter show) nearly so far south:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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