Beagle Expedition (1831-1836); Geology -- South America; Volcanoes
The strata of sandstone in the low coast country, and likewise on the
Blue Mountains, are often divided by cross or current laminae, which
dip in different directions, and frequently at an angle of forty-five
degrees. Most authors have attributed these cross layers to successive
small accumulations on an inclined surface; but from a careful
examination in some parts of the New Red Sandstone of England, I
believe that such layers generally form parts of a series of curves,
like gigantic tidal ripples, the tops of which have since been cut off,
either by nearly horizontal layers, or by another set of great ripples,
the folds of which do not exactly coincide with those below them. It is
well-known to surveyors that mud and sand are disturbed during storms
at considerable depths, at least from three hundred to four hundred and
fifty feet (See Martin White on “Soundings in the British Channel”
pages 4 and 166.), so that the nature of the bottom even becomes
temporarily changed; the bottom, also, at a depth between sixty and
seventy feet, has been observed to be broadly rippled. (M. Siau on the
“Action of Waves” “Edin. New Phil. Journ.” volume 31 page 245.) One
may, therefore, be allowed to suspect, from the appearance just
mentioned in the New Red Sandstone, that at greater depths, the bed of
the ocean is heaped up during gales into great ripple-like furrows and
depressions, which are afterwards cut off by the currents during more
tranquil weather, and again furrowed during gales.
VALLEYS IN THE SANDSTONE PLATFORMS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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