Abstract
VENEZUELA is a country now of special interest both in economic and academic geology. In this volume Mr. R. A. Liddle states the facts collected in that country and Trinidad during five years' field work for an American oil company in 1920–25. The book is useful from its mass of facts, which are systematically stated and tabulated. It is illustrated by numerous sketch maps and illustrations. The author shows that the country consists of a basis of metamorphic rocks, which are covered by rare Silurian or Ordovician beds, and some Devonian. An extensive series, which he calls the Old Bed Series, from its apparent age, would be more appropriately called the New Red Series. There are no marine Jurassic rocks, but a varied series of Cretaceous, which are covered unconformably by a succession of Eocene. After another unconformity and some Oligocene rocks follows the Miocene, which is described as the characteristic formation of Venezuela. It was followed by great earth movements and uplifts. The Pliocene was a period of erosion, while the Pleistocene in the southern part of the country is a vast tract of alluvium with broad sheets of outwash gravel from the Andes. The author's view that some of the garnetiferous schists are of Cretaceous age is based on evidence that appears quite inadequate. The account of the tectonic structures is not very clear. The bibliography is irregular and inaccurate. Misprints are aggravatingly numerous, but perhaps the author was unable to see proofs. There is no reference to the work of some other geologists who were engaged in Venezuela and Trinidad at the same time.
The Geology of Venezuela and Trinidad.
R. A.
Liddle
By. Pp. xxxix+552+85 plates. (Fort Worth, Texas: J. P. MacGowan: London: Thomas Murby and Co., 1928.) 33s. 6d. net.
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The Geology of Venezuela and Trinidad . Nature 122, 839 (1928). https://doi.org/10.1038/122839a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/122839a0