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
We now come to the gypseous formation: I will first describe the
structure of the several mountains, and then give in one section a
detailed account of the nature of the rocks. On the north side of the
road, which here runs in an east and west valley, the mountain of
porphyry [D] is succeeded by a hill [E] formed of the upper gypseous
strata tilted, at an angle of between 70 and 80 degrees to the west, by
a uniclinal axis of elevation which does not run parallel to the other
neighbouring ranges, and which is of short length; for on the south
side of the valley its prolongation is marked only by a small flexure
in a pile of strata inclined by a quite separate axis. A little further
on the north and south valley of Horcones enters at right angles our
line of section; its western side is bounded by a hill of gypseous
strata [F] dipping westward at about 45 degrees, and its eastern side
by a mountain of similar strata [G] inclined westward at 70 degrees,
and superimposed by an oblique fault on another mass of the same strata
[H], also inclined westward, but at an angle of about 30 degrees: the
complicated relation of these three masses [F, G, H] is explained by
the structure of a great mountain-range lying some way to the north, in
which a regular anticlinal axis (represented in the section by dotted
lines) is seen, with the strata on its eastern side again bending up
and forming a distinct uniclinal axis, of which the beds marked [H]
form the lower part. This great uniclinal line is intersected, near the
Puente del Inca, by the valley along which the road runs, and the
strata composing it will be immediately described. On the south side of
the road, in the space corresponding with the mountains [E, F, and G],
the strata everywhere dip westward generally at an angle of 30 degrees,
occasionally mounting up to 45 degrees, but not in an unbroken line,
for there are several vertical faults, forming separate uniclinal
masses, all dipping in the same direction,—a form of elevation common
in the Cordillera. We thus see that within a narrow space, the gypseous
strata have been upheaved and crushed together by a great uniclinal,
anticlinal, and one lesser uniclinal line [E] of elevation; and that
between these three lines and the Cumbre, in the sandstones,
conglomerates and porphyritic formation, there have been at least two
or three other great elevatory axes.
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