This axis is formed of a chain of mountains [F], of which the central masses (near La Punta) consist of andesite containing green hornblende and coppery mica, and the outer masses of greenish and black porphyries, together with some fine lilac-coloured claystone porphyry; all these porphyries being injected and broken up by small hummocks of andesite.The central great mass of this latter rock, is covered on the eastern side by a black, fine-grained, highly micaceous slate, which, together with the succeeding mountains of porphyry, are traversed by numerous white dikes, branching from the andesite, and some of them extending in straight lines, to a distance of at least two miles.The mountains of porphyry eastward of the micaceous schist soon, but gradually, assume (as observed in so many other cases) a stratified structure, and can then be recognised as a part of the porphyritic conglomerate formation.These strata [G] are inclined at a high angle to the S.E., and form a mass from fifteen hundred to two thousand feet in thickness.The gypseous masses to the west already described, dip directly towards this axis, with the strata only in a few places (one of which is represented in the section) thrown from it: hence this fourth axis is mainly uniclinal towards the S.E., and just like our third axis, only locally anticlinal.
The above strata of porphyritic conglomerate [G] with their south-eastward dip, come abruptly up against beds of the gypseous formation [H], which are gently, but irregularly, inclined westward: so that there is here a synclinal axis and great fault.Further up the valley, here running nearly north and south, the gypseous formation is prolonged for some distance; but the stratification is unintelligible, the whole being broken up by faults, dikes, and metalliferous veins.The strata consist chiefly of red calcareous sandstones, with numerous veins in the place of layers, of gypsum; the sandstone is associated with some black calcareous slate-rock, and with green pseudo-honestones, passing into porcelain-jasper.Still further up the valley, near Las Amolanas [I], the gypseous strata become more regular, dipping at an angle of between 30 and 40 degrees to W.S.W., and conformably overlying, near the mouth of the ravine of Jolquera, strata [K] of porphyritic conglomerate.The whole series has been tilted by a partially concealed axis [L], of granite, andesite, and a granitic mixture of white feldspar, quartz, and oxide of iron.
FIFTH AXIS OF ELEVATION (VALLEY OF COPIAPO, NEAR LOS AMOLANAS).
I will describe in some detail the beds [I] seen here, which, as just stated, dip to W.S.W., at an angle of from 30 to 40 degrees.I had not time to examine the underlying porphyritic conglomerate, of which the lowest beds, as seen at the mouth of the Jolquera, are highly compact, with crystals of red oxide of iron; and I am not prepared to say whether they are chiefly of volcanic or metamorphic origin.On these beds there rests a coarse purplish conglomerate, very little metamorphosed, composed of pebbles of porphyry, but remarkable from containing one pebble of granite;--of which fact no instance has occurred in the sections hitherto described.
Above this conglomerate, there is a black siliceous claystone, and above it numerous alternations of dark-purplish and green porphyries, which may be considered as the uppermost limit of the porphyritic conglomerate formation.
Above these porphyries comes a coarse, arenaceous conglomerate, the lower half white and the upper half of a pink colour, composed chiefly of pebbles of various porphyries, but with some of red sandstone and jaspery rocks.In some of the more arenaceous parts of the conglomerate, there was an oblique or current lamination; a circumstance which I did not elsewhere observe.
Above this conglomerate, there is a vast thickness of thinly stratified, pale-yellowish, siliceous sandstone, passing into a granular quartz-rock, used for grindstones (hence the name of the place Las Amolanas), and certainly belonging to the gypseous formation, as does probably the immediately underlying conglomerate.In this yellowish sandstone there are layers of white and pale-red siliceous conglomerate; other layers with small, well-rounded pebbles of white quartz, like the bed at the R.Claro at Coquimbo; others of a greenish, fine-grained, less siliceous stone, somewhat resembling the pseudo-honestones lower down the valley; and lastly, others of a black calcareous shale-rock.In one of the layers of conglomerate, there was embedded a fragment of mica-slate, of which this is the first instance; hence perhaps, it is from a formation of mica-slate, that the numerous small pebbles of quartz, both here and at Coquimbo, have been derived.Not only does the siliceous sandstone include layers of the black, thinly stratified, not fissile, calcareous shale-rock, but in one place the whole mass, especially the upper part, was, in a marvellously short horizontal distance, after frequent alternations, replaced by it.
When this occurred, a mountain-mass, several thousand feet in thickness was thus composed; the black calcareous shale-rock, however, always included some layers of the pale-yellowish siliceous sandstone, of the red conglomerate, and of the greenish jaspery and pseudo-honestone varieties.
It likewise included three or four widely separated layers of a brown limestone, abounding with shells immediately to be described.This pile of strata was in parts traversed by many veins of gypsum.The calcareous shale-rock, though when freshly broken quite black, weathers into an ash-colour: in which respect and in general appearance, it perfectly resembles those great fossiliferous beds of the Peuquenes range, alternating with gypsum and red sandstone, described in the last chapter.