On the occasion of the 200th. anniversary of Charles Darwin´s birth, the Asociación Geológica Argentina decided to prepare a special issue devoted to the geological research undertaken by Darwin in Argentina. As it is well known, during his journeys on board HMS Beagle under the command of Captain Robert FitzRoy, he had the opportunity to survey overland different areas of South America. Darwin spent nearly three years - between August 1832 and April 1835 - visiting and studying different regions of our country. The aim of this special issue is to analyze his important geological observations and to emphasize the validity of many of his ideas under a 21st Century perspective. In order to accomplish this aim, several key localities that Darwin examined from a geological point of view during his voyage were selected. Such an analysis was carried out by several geologists and paleontologists well acquainted with the diverse problems that Darwin faced along his journeys in Argentina.Fil: Ramos, Victor Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber". Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Estudios Andinos "Don Pablo Groeber"; Argentin

Aguirre-Urreta, Maria Beatriz

Griffin, Miguel

Ramos, Victor Alberto

English

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Revista de la Asociación Geológica Argentina 64 (1): 4 - 7 (2009)4On the occasion of the 200th. anniversaryof Charles Darwin´s birth, the Asocia-ción Geológica Argentina decided toprepare a special issue devoted to thegeological research undertaken by Dar-win in Argentina. As it is well known,during his journeys on board HMS Bea-gle under the command of Captain Ro-bert FitzRoy, he had the opportunity tosurvey overland different areas of SouthAmerica. Darwin spent nearly three years- between August 1832 and April 1835 -visiting and studying different regions ofour country, as illustrated in figure 1.The aim of this special issue is to analy-ze his important geological observationsand to emphasize the validity of many ofhis ideas under a 21st Century perspecti-ve. In order to accomplish this aim, seve-ral key localities that Darwin examinedfrom a geological point of view duringhis voyage were selected. Such an analy-sis was carried out by several geologistsand paleontologists well acquainted withthe diverse problems that Darwin facedalong his journeys in Argentina.HMS Beagle's main mission was to sur-vey the coasts of southern South Ame-rica, which it carried out during severaljourneys along the coast. The time nee-ded to chart the coast in details gaveDarwin several opportunities to spendconsiderable time on land. During thesurvey he also had many occasions toland at selected points along the Atlanticcoast.The first of these fieldtrips was donebetween August and October 1832 andgave him the opportunity to visit PuntaAlta near the fort of Bahía Blanca (Fig.1). The second one was between No-vember 1832 and May 1833 to visit theBeagle Channel, the surrounding areas ofTierra del Fuego Island, and the Mal-vinas Islands.The third and more important fieldtripwas, after landing in Carmen de Pata-gones in August 1833 (Fig. 1), to rideacross the Pampas to Buenos Aires cityDARWIN'S GEOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN ARGENTINAFigure 1: Journeys of HMS Beagle in southern South America (base map modified from Bowly1990). Dates of Darwin's rides overland are shown in bold while the trips on board HMS Beagleare shown in italics, taken from Keynes (2001).and later on to Santa Fé and Bajada (to-day Paraná city) on the Río Paraná.The fourth trip began in Montevideo inDecember 1833 and allowed Darwin toexamine various points along the Pata-gonian coast such as Puerto Deseadoand Puerto San Julián. Afterwards HMSBeagle sailed to Tierra del Fuego where itspent nearly four months until March1834. Later on it visited again differentareas of the Malvinas Islands. In April of1834 it anchored in the mouth of RíoSanta Cruz. It was during this trip thatDarwin, FitzRoy and more than 20 crewmembers sailed upstream the Río SantaCruz in three small whale boats, almostreaching its headwaters near the foothillsof the Patagonian Andes.This fourth trip continued across theMagallanes and strait of along the Pacificcoast landing in Valparaíso in July 1834,and spending several months surveyingthe Chilean coast.Darwin's last visit to Argentina was bet-ween March and April 1835 (Fig. 1),when he crossed the Andes betweenSantiago and Mendoza following two dif-ferent cordilleran passes.The different contributions of this issuewere organized based on stratigraphicrecord and location (Fig. 2). The sectionsof the Andes are the first to be analyzed,then Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, andfinally the Cenozoic of the Pampas,ending with the origin of Puente del Incaand Darwin's tectonic ideas on the for-mation of the Andes.Pedro J. Depetris describes the docu-ments kept in the Academia Nacional deCiencias in Córdoba related to the nomi-nation of Darwin, first as correspondingmember and then as honorary memberof the Academy. This paper also presentsDarwin's original letter where he ackno-wledges the nomination and the frontpage of the book on the Origin of theSpecies that Darwin dedicated to theacademy.Stella Poma, Vanesa D. Litvak, Magda-lena Koukharsky, Beatriz Maisonnaveand Sonia Quenardelle describe the rocksin which the Triassic forest at Agua de laZorra is included as being part of a pyro-clastic flow. Their petrographic studiesconfirm the previous description of Dar-win on the presence of fine volcanic ma-terial. Based on their observations, theyanswer Darwin's queries about the pro-cess that buried the forest in standingposition. It should be noted that theseDarwin in Argentina 5Figure 2: Approximate location of the different contributions dealing with Darwin's geologicalresearch in Argentina indicated by an asterisk (compare with Figure 1).pyroclastic flows were unknown at thetime of Darwin's visit.Mariana Brea, Analía E. Artabe and LuisA. Spalletti deal with the first in situ fo-rest discovered in South America byDarwin in his trip across the Andes. Thisforest was described in detail by Darwinas monotypic and assigned to the Ter-tiary. Their study reveals that the paleo-vegetation of Agua de La Zorra forest iscomposed by conifers and corystos-perms reaching up to 20-26 meters highforming a two-storeyed arboreal strataand an understorey of ferns. It was reas-signed to the Triassic and reconstruc-tions of the forest landscape are presen-ted.Beatriz Aguirre-Urreta and VerónicaVennari study a small collection of fossilinvertebrates from the Piuquenes Pass, alocality discovered by Darwin during hiscrossing of the High Andes from San-tiago to Mendoza. They compared thiscollection with the fossils that allowedDarwin to propose a Neocomian age forthe bearing strata. This assignation isconfirmed and the time span stretched tothe Tithonian based on key ammonitesof that age.Laura Giambiagi, Maisa Tunik, Victor A.Ramos and Estanislao Godoy comparethe observations of Darwin on the struc-ture of the High Andes between thePiuquenes and Portillo passes with mo-dern structural knowledge. They remarkthe awareness of Darwin on the episodicuplift of the Andes with the rise of thePrincipal Cordillera first and a later upliftof the Frontal Cordillera, both in post-Cretaceous times.Eduardo Zappettini and José Mendíaintroduce the first geological map ofPatagonia ever compiled, publishing thefirst color hand-drafted copy. It wasdrawn by Darwin after his trip to SouthAmerica. These authors outline the maingeological units used in the map and vali-date them with the present knowledge ofthe geology of the region.Eduardo B. Olivero, Francisco A. Me-dina and María I. López C. analyze thestill unsolved problem of Darwin's "ClaySlate Formation" in the Fueguian Andes.This term coined for the Cretaceous suc-cessions, presently includes a series ofmarine mudstones the stratigraphy ofwhich is based on scarce fossils, mainlyinoceramids and ammonites. The presentuse of trace fossils and distinctive ichno-fabrics, together with new ammonites,are contributing to a better understan-ding of these mudstones, improving stra-tigraphic correlation among differentunits.Ana Parras and Miguel Griffin presentthe sedimentology and fossil contents ofa classic Miocene locality, first describedby Darwin at the southern bank of RíoSanta Cruz, along the Patagonian coast.This is the type locality of most of thefossils found in his "Great PatagonianTertiary Formation" and later described bySowerby (1846). The rocks of this sec-tion are presently included in the MonteLeón Formation.The contribution by Silvio Casadio andMiguel Griffin deals with the sedimento-logy and paleontology of a classic loca-lity at Puerto Deseado (Port Desire).This locality was visited by Darwin in1833 when he collected fossil mollusks,and remained nearly unexplored by geo-logists and paleontologists ever since.The authors assess this classic Miocenelocality and correlate it with several simi-lar sequences exposed along the Atlanticcliffs.Oscar A. Martínez, Jorge Rabassa andAndrea Coronato discuss one of themost intriguing lithostratigraphic units inthe Late Cenozoic of Patagonia namedby Darwin the "Patagonian Shingle Forma-tion". They analyze the prevailing para-digm of that time that assigned theserocks to the "Great Universal Dèlluge" andgive a modern perspective to the originof the "Rodados Patagónicos".Jorge Strelin and Eduardo Malagninoanalyze the observations of Darwin inhis trip upstream the Río Santa Cruz in1834. Special emphasis is paid to theextension of the big erratic boulders andgravels described by Darwin which arenow interpreted as indicators of a maxi-mum glacial expansion in Patagonia.Those blocks together with some newfindings are ascribed by these authors toa catastrophic event related to the out-burst of a large lake.Martín Iriondo and Daniela Kröhling co-ver the visit of Darwin to Santa Fé withspecial emphasis in those localities des-cribed by him along the Río Paranábanks. The authors stress the precise des-criptions of Darwin and discuss the LateCenozoic age of these sediments.Marcelo Zárate and Alicia Folguera dealwith the geologic characteristics of thePampas south of Río Salado, a regionthat impressed Darwin on his ride fromBahía Blanca to Buenos Aires. They dis-cuss the Pampean Formation of Darwin,its present stratigraphic divisions, its age,and the different environments encom-passed in this unit, from a modern pers-pective.Mirta E. Quattrocchio, Cecilia M. Des-champs, Carlos A. Zavala, Silvia C. Grilland Ana M. Borromei give an updatedvision of the scenery described by Dar-win when he visited Bahía Blanca andsurrounding areas. Multidisciplinary re-sults were integrated by these authors ina chronosequence chart. This diagramshows the suggested space-time correla-tion of the recognized events in the LateMiocene-Holocene history of the south-western Pampas.Juan Carlos Fernicola, Sergio F. Vizcaínoand Gerardo De Iuliis provide a synthe-sis of the present knowledge of the largefossil mammals collected by Darwin,mostly from the Pampean region of cen-tral Argentina. These authors ponder onthe reasons that led Darwin to recognizeonly megatheres and mastodonts for thelarge fossil remains and discuss the cu-rrent taxonomic status of the taxa descri-bed or erected by Owen between 1837and 1845.Sergio F. Vizcaíno, Richard A. Fariña andJuan Carlos Fernicola, in their contribu-tion on the Pleistocene South AmericanDarwin in Argentina6Darwin in Argentina 7mammals, attempt to provide answers toDarwin's questions, such as what hasexterminated so many living creatures?Their study on the palaeobiology ofthese organisms shed light on the un-derstanding of their evolution intermin-gled with ecology and phylogeny.Victor A. Ramos searches on the originof Puente del Inca, a natural bridge des-cribed by Darwin in the High Andes,during his cross by the Uspallata o LaCumbre Pass. Applying uniformitarism,the author interprets the origin of Puen-te del Inca as initially formed as an icebridge, latter on cemented by hot springwaters. Ramos also weighs Darwin'sthoughts on mountain uplift based onthe Mesozoic successions of the Puentedel Inca section. His old ideas on tecto-nics anticipate in many decades someconcepts of the geosynclinal theory andalso on the present fold and thrust beltmechanics.We would wish to acknowledge the revie-wers of the present issue: S. Bargo (Uni-versidad Nacional de La Plata), M. Bond(Universidad Nacional de La Plata), N.Carmona (CADIC, Ushuaia), C. Costa(Universidad Nacional de San Luis), R.Charrier (Universidad de Chile), J.S.Crampton (Institute of Geological andNuclear Sciences, New Zealand), A.Crame (British Antarctic Survey, UK), D.Croft (Case Western Reserve University,USA), I.W.D. Dalziel (University ofTexas, USA), R. De Barrio (INREMI, LaPlata), E. Derbyshire (University of Lon-don, UK), C. Deschamps (UniversidadNacional de La Plata), E. Godoy (San-tiago de Chile), P. Imbellone (Universi-dad Nacional de La Plata), C. Janis(Brown University, USA), M. Kaplan(Columbia University, USA), S.M. Kay(Cornell University, USA), H.A. Leanza(MACN, Buenos Aires), E. Llambías(CIG, La Plata), T. Manera (UniversidadNacional del Sur, Bahía Blanca), S. Mar-tinez (Universidad de la República, Uru-guay), G. McDonald (National Park Ser-vice, USA), A. Mourgues (SERNAGEO-MIN, Chile), C.A. Mpodozis (Antofa-gasta Minerals, Chile), D. Muhs (UnitedStates Geological Survey, USA), S. Niel-sen (Christian-Albrechts-Universität, Ger-many), O. Orfeo (Centro de EcologíaAplicada del Litoral, Corrientes), E.G.Ottone (Universidad de Buenos Aires), J.Panza (SEGEMAR, Buenos Aires), R.N.Page (SEGEMAR, Buenos Aires), G.Pastorino (MACN, Buenos Aires), G.J.Retallack (University of Oregon, USA),P. Sruoga (SEGEMAR, Buenos Aires), J.Stilwell (Monash University, Australia),M. Suarez (SERNAGEOMIN, Chile), M.Toledo (Muséum National d'HistoireNaturelle, France) and G. Vucetich (Uni-versidad Nacional de La Plata).Beatriz Aguirre-Urreta.Miguel Griffin.Victor A. Ramos.Invited EditorsWORKS CITED IN THE TEXTBowly, J. 1990. Charles Darwin, a new biography.Hutchinson Press, 511 p., London, Sydney,Auckland and Johannesburg.Keynes, R.D. 2001. Charles Darwin's Beagle Dia-ry. Cambridge Univesity Press. 464 p., Cam-bridge.Sowerby, G.B. II 1846. Descriptions of the Ter-tiary fossil shells from South America. InDarwin, C. Geological observations on SouthAme-rica. Being the third part of the geologyof the voyage of the Beagle, under the com-mand of Capt. Fitzroy, R.N. during the years1832 to 1836. Smith Elder and Co. Ed.,Appendix: 249-264, London.3Portrait with signature gifted by Charles Darwin to the Academia Nacional de Ciencias in 1878 acknowledging his nomination as an HonoraryMember. Photograph taken by Julia Margaret Cameron in 1868. Unpublished original copy kept in the Academia (see Depetris this volume)Introducción: Investigación geológica de Darwin en la Argentina. Beatriz Aguirre-Urreta, Miguel Griffin y Victor A. RamosCharles Robert Darwin y la Academia Nacional de Ciencias. Pedro J. Depetris.Las observaciones de Darwin en Sudamérica: ¿qué encontró en Agua de la Zorra, provincia de Mendoza?. Stella Poma,Vanesa D. Litvak, Magdalena Koukharsky, E. Beatriz Maisonnave y Sonia Quenardelle. El Bosque Darwin en Agua de la Zorra: El primer bosque in situ descubierto en América del Sur por Darwin en 1835.Mariana Brea, Analía E. Artabe y Luis A. Spalletti.Tras las huellas de Darwin a través de los Andes: invertebrados fósiles del Tithonia-no-Neocomiano del paso dePiuquenes. Beatriz Aguirre-Urreta y Verónica Vennari.La Alta Cordillera de los Andes del centro de Argentina y Chile a lo largo de la transecta del paso Piuquenes-Cordóndel Portillo: Las observaciones pioneras de Darwin comparadas con la geología moderna. Laura Giambiagi, Maisa Tunik,Victor A. Ramos y Estanislao Godoy.El primer mapa geológico de la Patagonia. Eduardo O. Zappettini y José Mendía.Estratigrafía de las fangolitas del Cretácico en los Andes Fueguinos orientales: Nuevos datos de cuerpos y trazas fósi-les. Eduardo B. Olivero, Francisco A. Medina y María I. López C. La Gran Formación Terciaria de Patagonia de Darwin en la desembocadura del río Santa Cruz: una revaluación. AnaParras y Miguel Griffin.Sedimentología y paleontología de una sucesión marina miocena citada por primera vez por Darwin en PuertoDeseado. Silvio Casadío y Miguel Griffin.Charles Darwin y las primeras observaciones científicas sobre los Rodados Patagónicos. Oscar A. Martínez, Jorge Rabassa yAndrea Coronato.Charles Darwin y las glaciaciones más antiguas de Patagonia: los bloques erráticos del alto valle del Río Santa Cruz.Jorge Strelin y Eduardo Malagnino. De Buenos Aires a Santa Fe: observaciones de Darwin y conocimiento actual. Martin Iriondo y Daniela Kröhling. Sobre las formaciones de las Pampas en los pasos de Darwin: al sur del Salado. Marcelo Zárate y Alicia Folguera. Geología del área de Bahía Blanca, los comentarios de Darwin y el conocimiento actual: una historia de 10 millonesde años. Mirta E. Quattrocchio, Cecilia M. Deschamps, Carlos A. Zavala, Silvia C. Grill y Ana M. Borromei.  Los mamíferos fósiles colectados por Charles Darwin en América del Sur durante su viaje a bordo del HMS Beagle.Juan Carlos Fernicola, Sergio F. Vizcaíno y Gerardo De Iuliis.El joven Darwin y la ecología y extinción de los mamíferos fósiles sudamericanos. Sergio F. Vizcaíno, Richard A. Fariña yJuan Carlos Fernicola.Darwin en Puente del Inca: observaciones sobre la formación de Puente del Inca y el levantamiento de las montañas.Victor A. Ramos.REVISTA DE LA ASOCIACIÓN GEOLÓGICA ARGENTINAVolumen 64, Número 1, Páginas 1-179. Buenos Aires, Febrero 2009ARTÍCULOS4-78-1221-31101-108124-136137-146147-159160-16960-6983-89109-123170-179Registro de la propiedadintelectual642065 ASOCIACIÓN GEOLÓGICAARGENTINAMaipú 641 1º Piso, C1006ACG. Bs. As.Argentina. Tel/fax 54 11 4325-310490-10013-2070-8255-5943-5432-42

Darwin's Geological Research in Argentina

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Darwin's Geological Research in Argentina

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