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
Brazil, Bahia, gneiss with disjointed metamorphosed dikes.—Strike of
foliation.—Rio de Janeiro, gneiss-granite, embedded fragment in,
decomposition of.—La Plata, metamorphic and old volcanic rocks of.—S.
Ventana.—Claystone porphyry formation of Patagonia; singular
metamorphic rocks; pseudo-dikes.—Falkland Islands, Palaeozoic fossils
of.—Tierra del Fuego, clay-slate formation, cretaceous fossils of;
cleavage and foliation; form of land.—Chonos Archipelago, mica-schists,
foliation disturbed by granitic axis; dikes.—Chiloe.—Concepcion, dikes,
successive formation of.—Central and Northern Chile.—Concluding remarks
on cleavage and foliation.—Their close analogy and similar
origin.—Stratification of metamorphic schists.—Foliation of intrusive
rocks.—Relation of cleavage and foliation to the lines of tension
during metamorphosis.
The metamorphic and plutonic formations of the several districts
visited by the “Beagle” will be here chiefly treated of, but only such
cases as appear to me new, or of some special interest, will be
described in detail; at the end of the chapter I will sum up all the
facts on cleavage and foliation,— to which I particularly attended.
BAHIA, BRAZIL: latitude 13 degrees south.
The prevailing rock is gneiss, often passing, by the disappearance of
the quartz and mica, and by the feldspar losing its red colour, into a
brilliantly grey primitive greenstone. Not unfrequently quartz and
hornblende are arranged in layers in almost amorphous feldspar. There
is some fine-grained syenitic granite, orbicularly marked by
ferruginous lines, and weathering into vertical, cylindrical holes,
almost touching each other. In the gneiss, concretions of granular
feldspar and others of garnets with mica occur. The gneiss is traversed
by numerous dikes composed of black, finely crystallised, hornblendic
rock, containing a little glassy feldspar and sometimes mica, and
varying in thickness from mere threads to ten feet: these threads,
which are often curvilinear, could sometimes be traced running into the
larger dikes. One of these dikes was remarkable from having been in two
or three places laterally disjointed, with unbroken gneiss interposed
between the broken ends, and in one part with a portion of the gneiss
driven, apparently whilst in a softened state, into its side or wall.
In several neighbouring places, the gneiss included angular, well-
defined, sometimes bent, masses of hornblende rock, quite like, except
in being more perfectly crystallised, that forming the dikes, and, at
least in one instance, containing (as determined by Professor Miller)
augite as well as hornblende. In one or two cases these angular masses,
though now quite separate from each other by the solid gneiss, had,
from their exact correspondence in size and shape, evidently once been
united; hence I cannot doubt that most or all of the fragments have
been derived from the breaking up of the dikes, of which we see the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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