Geology of the lower Amazon region / Charles Schuchert.
- Charles Schuchert
- Date:
- [1906]
Licence: In copyright
Credit: Geology of the lower Amazon region / Charles Schuchert. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.
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![beginning in the lower Devonic, and, on the other, with the breaking- down of the old Atlantic-Ethiopean continent. This hypothetic event, which separated the probable great continents of younger Paleozoic time—Atlantis and Gondwana of Suess^—gave rise to a sea transverse to the present Atlantic, and this apparently occurred at the beginning of the Upper Devonic. [This is the mediterranean named by Suess “Tethys.”] The shallow sea then retreated from northern and middle South America. It must therefore be concluded that toward the end of Devonic and the beginning of Carbonic time the greater part of South America was land. In the southeast there was apparently a continuous elevation of land; in the west (Chile), partial elevation; and in the northern region—i. e., Bolivia, Peru, and Brazil—there was a widespread sinking which led to another transgression of the sea. In these countries of South America the marine Carbonic is that of the Upper Carbonic. It is worthy of note that this sea occupied about the same area as that of the Devonic. The transgression begins with sandy deposits with traces of plants, as Lepidodendron and Calamites, but there are no beds of coal. .A.11 undoubted marine deposits of the Carbonic of South America appear to be closely interrelated, but the fossil evidence outside of the Amazon region is scanty and in the main depends upon brachiopods. Upper Carbonic fossils are known from the east base of the Cordillera Oriental, Peru; Lake Titicaca at Yarbichambi and Yampopata; Arque in the province La Pag, vicinity of Cochabamba, and Santa Cruz, Bolivia; Choapa valley, at La Ligua, Chile; in Brazil, other than the Amazon region, in southern Matto-Grosso and the adjoining regions of Parand, and Sao Paulo. Katzer regards this distribution as indicating that toward the end of Carbonic time there were flat and swampy islands and peninsulas separated by comparatively deep marine bays and straits. This pecuhar distribution made it possible for the South American sea to have communication in all directions, but the author wisely adds that the great, similarity of these faunas with those of Europe and Asia may be due to a loose identification of the species. I AntlUz der Erde, Vol. I, p. 516; Vol. II, p. 317.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22407066_0008.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
