Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 307 of 332 - First - Home
There Is In
Venezuela A Suppression Of The Different Strata Which, In The Old
Continent, Separate Zechstein From Jura Limestone.
The sandstone of
Cocollar, which sometimes covers the limestone of Cumanacoa, may be
considered as variegated sandstone; but it is more probable that in
alternating by layers with the limestone of Cumanacoa, it is sometimes
thrown to the upper limit of the formation to which it belongs.
The
zechstein of Europe also contains a very quartzose sandstone. The two
limestone strata of Cumanacoa and Caripe succeed immediately each
other, like Alpine and Jura limestone, on the western declivity of the
Mexican table-land, between Sopilote, Mescala and Tehuilotepec. These
formations, perhaps, pass from one to the other, so that the latter
may be only an upper shelf of zechstein. This immediate covering, this
suppression of interposed soils, this simplicity of structure and
absence of oolitic strata, have been equally observed in Upper Silesia
and in the Pyrenees. On the other hand the immediate superposition of
the limestone of Cumanacoa on mica-slate and transition
clay-slate - the rarity of the petrifactions which have not yet been
sufficiently examined - the strata of silex passing to Lydian stone,
may lead to the belief that the soils of Cumanacoa and Caripe are of
much more ancient formation than the secondary rocks. We must not be
surprised that the doubts which arise in the mind of the geologist
when endeavouring to decide on the relative age of the limestone of
the high mountains in the Pyrenees, the Apennines (south of the lake
of Perugia) and in the Swiss Alps, should extend to the limestone
strata of the high mountains of New Andalusia, and everywhere in
America where the presence of red sandstone is not distinctly
recognized.
9. SANDSTONE OF THE BERGANTIN.
Between Nueva Barcelona and the Cerro del Bergantin a quartzose
sandstone covers the Jura limestone of Cumanacoa. Is it an arenaceous
rock analogous to green sandstone, or does it belong to the sandstone
of Cocollar? In the latter case its presence seems to prove still more
clearly that the limestones of Cumanacoa and Caripe are only two parts
of the same system, alternating with sandstone, sometimes quartzose,
sometimes slaty.
10. GYPSUM OF THE LLANOS OF VENEZUELA.
Deposits of lamellar gypsum, containing numerous strata of marl, are
found in patches on the steppes of Caracas and Barcelona; for
instance, in the table-land of San Diego, between Ortiz and the Mesa
de Paja; and near the mission of Cachipo. They appeared to me to cover
the Jura limestone of Tisnao, which is analogous to that of Caripe,
where we find it mixed with masses of fibrous gypsum. I have not given
the name formation either to the sandstone of the Orinoco, of
Cocollar, of Bergantin or to the gypsum of the Llanos, because nothing
as yet proves the independence of those arenaceous and gypsous soils.
I think it will one day be ascertained that the gypsum of the Llanos
covers not only the Jura limestone of the Llanos, but that it is
sometimes enclosed in it like the gypsum of the Golfo Triste on the
east of the Alpine limestone of Cumanacoa.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 307 of 332
Words from 161181 to 161708
of 174507