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I.—The Geological Age of the Carrara Marbles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

Extract

The statuary marbles of Carrara have been repeatedly asserted to be metamorphic limestones of earlier Mesozoic or later Palæozoic age. Similar statements were once frequent in regard to other mountain regions, but they have one by one dropped out of geological literature. This, however, is such a hardy perennial as to be still repeated in petrological and other textbooks. Doubts, however, were felt by the first author in 1878, and these became almost certainties after 1886, but as each visit was only for a few hours, and did not allow of a proper examination of the rocks in situ, he deferred writing on the subject till he could spend a longer time at Carrara. That opportunity, however, never came, and is not now likely to occur ; but on finding not long since that his friends, Professor Boyd Dawkins and the Rev. H. H. Winwood, had visited the quarries in 1898, and the latter had published an account of the district, with a sketch-section drawn by the former, he communicated with them, and the following paper summarizes the experience of the three, which it is hoped may help in laying another metamorphic ghost.

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Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1915

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