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
6th. A white conglomerate, with many particles of quartz, almost
blending into the paste.
7th. Highly siliceous, fine-grained white sandstone.
8th and 9th. Red and white beds not examined.
10th. Yellow, fine-grained, thinly stratified, magnesian (judging from
its slow dissolution in acids) limestone: it includes some white quartz
pebbles, and little cavities, lined with calcareous spar, some
retaining the form of shells.
11th. A bed between twenty and thirty feet thick, quite conformable
with the underlying ones, composed of a hard basis, tinged lilac-grey
porphyritic with NUMEROUS crystals of whitish feldspar, with black mica
and little spots of soft ferruginous matter: evidently a submarine
lava.
12th. Yellow magnesian limestone, as before, part-stained purple.
13th. A most singular rock; basis purplish grey, obscurely crystalline,
easily fusible into a dark green glass, not hard, thickly speckled with
crystals more or less perfect of white carbonate of lime, of red
hydrous oxide of iron, of a white and transparent mineral like
analcime, and of a green opaque mineral like soap-stone; the basis is
moreover amygdaloidal with many spherical balls of white crystallised
carbonate of lime, of which some are coated with the red oxide of iron.
I have no doubt, from the examination of a superincumbent stratum (19),
that this is a submarine lava; though in Northern Chile, some of the
metamorphosed sedimentary beds are almost as crystalline, and of as
varied composition.
14th. Red sandstone, passing in the upper part into a coarse, hard, red
conglomerate, 300 feet thick, having a calcareous cement, and including
grains of quartz and broken crystals of feldspar; basis infusible; the
pebbles consist of dull purplish porphyries, with some of quartz, from
the size of a nut to a man’s head. This is the coarsest conglomerate in
this part of the Cordillera: in the middle there was a white layer not
examined.
15th. Grand thick bed, of a very hard, yellowish-white rock, with a
crystalline feldspathic base, including large crystals of white
feldspar, many little cavities mostly full of soft ferruginous matter,
and numerous hexagonal plates of black mica. The upper part of this
great bed is slightly cellular; the lower part compact: the thickness
varied a little in different parts. Manifestly a submarine lava; and is
allied to bed 11.
16th and 17th. Dull purplish, calcareous, fine-grained, compact
sandstones, which pass into coarse white conglomerates with numerous
particles of quartz.
18th. Several alternations of red conglomerate, purplish sandstone, and
submarine lava, like that singular rock forming bed 13.
19th. A very heavy, compact, greenish-black stone, with a fine-grained
obviously crystalline basis, containing a few specks of white
calcareous spar, many specks of the crystallised hydrous red oxide of
iron, and some specks of a green mineral; there are veins and nests
filled with epidote: certainly a submarine lava.
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