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
This pile of strata dips at an angle of about 20 degrees to N.E. by N.,
close up to the foot of the Cuesta de Los Hornos, a crooked range of
mountains formed of intrusive rocks of the same nature with the above
described hillocks. Only in one or two places, on this south-eastern
side of the range, I noticed a narrow fringe of the upper gypseous
strata brushed up and inclined south-eastward from it. On its
north-eastern flank, and likewise on a few of the summits, the
stratified porphyritic conglomerate is inclined N.E.: so that, if we
disregard the very narrow anticlinal fringe of gypseous strata at its
S.E. foot, this range forms a second uniclinal axis of elevation.
Proceeding in a north-by-east direction to the village of Combarbala,
we come to a third escarpment of the porphyritic conglomerate, dipping
eastwards, and forming the outer range of the main Cordillera. The
lower beds were here more jaspery than usual, and they included some
white cherty strata and red sandstones, alternating with purple
claystone porphyry. Higher up in the Cordillera there appeared to be a
line of andesitic rocks; and beyond them, a fourth escarpment of the
porphyritic conglomerate, again dipping eastwards or inwards. The
overlying gypseous strata, if they ever existed here, have been
entirely removed.
COPPER MINES OF PANUNCILLO.
From Combarbala to Coquimbo, I traversed the country in a zigzag
direction, crossing and recrossing the porphyritic conglomerate and
finding in the granitic districts an unusual number of mountain-masses
composed of various intrusive, porphyritic rocks, many of them
andesitic. One common variety was greenish-black, with large crystals
of blackish albite. At Panuncillo a short N.N.W. and S.S.E. ridge, with
a nucleus formed of greenstone and of a slate-coloured porphyry
including crystals of glassy feldspar, deserves notice, from the very
singular nature of the almost vertical strata composing it. These
consist chiefly of a finer and coarser granular mixture, not very
compact, of white carbonate of lime, of protoxide of iron and of
yellowish garnets (ascertained by Professor Miller), each grain being
an almost perfect crystal. Some of the varieties consist exclusively of
granules of the calcareous spar; and some contain grains of copper ore,
and, I believe, of quartz. These strata alternate with a bluish,
compact, fusible, feldspathic rock. Much of the above granular mixture
has, also, a pseudo-brecciated structure, in which fragments are
obscurely arranged in planes parallel to those of the stratification,
and are conspicuous on the weathered surfaces. The fragments are
angular or rounded, small or large, and consist of bluish or reddish
compact feldspathic matter, in which a few acicular crystals of
feldspar can sometimes be seen. The fragments often blend at their
edges into the surrounding granular mass, and seem due to a kind of
concretionary action.
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