Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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Muriatiferous Clay (With Petroleum And Lamellar
Gypsum) Covers The Western Part Of The Peninsula Of Araya, Opposite To
The Town Of Cumana, And In The Centre Of The Island Of Marguerita.
This Clay Appears To Lie Immediately Over The Mica-Slate, And Under
The Calcareous Breccia Of The Tertiary Strata.
I cannot decide whether
Araya, which is rich in disseminated muriate of soda, belongs to the
sandstone formation of the Imposible, which from its position may be
compared to variegated sandstone (red marl).
There is no doubt that fragments of tertiary strata surround the
castle and town of Cumana (Castillo de San Antonio) and they also
appear at the south-western extremity of the peninsula of Araya (Cerro
de la Vela et del Barigon); at the ridge of the Cerro de Meapire, near
Cariaco; at Cabo Blanco, on the west of La Guayra, and on the shore of
Porto Cabello; they are consequently found at the foot of the two
slopes of the northern chain of the Cordillera of Venezuela. This
tertiary stratum is composed of alternate beds of calcareous
conglomerate, compact limestone, marl, and clay, containing selenite
and lamellar gypsum. The whole system (of very recent beds) appears to
me to constitute but one formation, which is found at the Cerro de la
Popa, near Carthagena, and in the islands of Guadaloupe and Martinico.
Such is the geological distribution of strata in the mountainous part
of Venezuela, in the group of the Parime and in the littoral
Cordillera. We have now to characterize the formations of the Llanos
(or of the basin of the Lower Orinoco and the Apure); but it is not
easy to determine the order of their superposition, because in this
region ravines or beds of torrents and deep wells dug by the hands of
man are entirely wanting.
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