Beagle Expedition (1831-1836); Geology -- South America; Volcanoes
From the complexity produced by the dikes, from the high inclination
and anticlinal dip of the strata of the basal series, which are
overlaid, at the opposite ends of the short ridge, by two great masses
of different ages and of different composition, I am not surprised that
this singular section has been misunderstood. It has even been supposed
to form part of a crater; but so far is this from having been the case,
that the summit of Flagstaff Hill once formed the lower extremity of a
sheet of lava and ashes, which were erupted from the central,
crateriform ridge. Judging from the slope of the contemporaneous
streams in an adjoining and undisturbed part of the island, the strata
of the Flagstaff Hill must have been upturned at least twelve hundred
feet, and probably much more, for the great truncated dikes on its
summit show that it has been largely denuded. The summit of this hill
now nearly equals in height the crateriform ridge; and before having
been denuded, it was probably higher than this ridge, from which it is
separated by a broad and much lower tract of country; we here,
therefore, see that the lower extremities of a set of lava-streams have
been tilted up to as great a height as, or perhaps greater height than,
the crater, down the flanks of which they originally flowed. I believe
that dislocations on so grand a scale are extremely rare in volcanic
districts. (M. Constant Prevost “Mem. de la Soc. Geolog.” tome 2
observes that “les produits volcaniques n’ont que localement et
rarement meme derange le sol, a travers lequel ils se sont fait jour.”)
The formation of such numbers of dikes in this part of the island shows
that the surface must here have been stretched to a quite extraordinary
degree: this stretching, on the ridge between Flagstaff and Barn Hills,
probably took place subsequently (though perhaps immediately so) to the
strata being tilted; for had the strata at that time extended
horizontally, they would in all probability have been fissured and
injected transversely, instead of in the planes of their
stratification. Although the space between the Barn and Flagstaff Hill
presents a distinct anticlinal line extending north and south, and
though most of the dikes range with much regularity in the same line,
nevertheless, at only a mile due south of the ridge the strata lie
undisturbed. Hence the disturbing force seems to have acted under a
point, rather than along a line. The manner in which it has acted, is
probably explained by the structure of Little Stony-top, a mountain
2,000 feet high, situated a few miles southward of the Barn; we there
see, even from a distance, a dark-coloured, sharp, wedge of compact
columnar rock, with the bright-coloured feldspathic strata, sloping
away on each side from its uncovered apex. This wedge, from which it
derives its name of Stony-top, consists of a body of rock, which has
been injected whilst liquified into the overlying strata; and if we may
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