Friday, April 27, 2007

Friday Field Foto #14: Landslide deposit


In the spring of 2006 I was lucky enough to attend a geology conference in Mendoza, Argentina, which is in the foreland of the central Andes east of, and just over the continental divide from Santiago, Chile. Part of the program was a day trip up to the Andes to look at the fold-thrust belt structure. This is very close to Aconcagua, which is the highest peak in the western hemisphere (almost 7,000 meters).

I snapped this photo on the last stop of the day (near the divide/border) of a landslide that occured about 100 years ago. Apparently, the timing of this is known from notes and observations from European explorers/settlers. Note the building in the lower right foreground for scale.

3 comments:

Thermochronic said...

is the large flat surface directly above the slide a dip slope?

BrianR said...

yes, i think so....this photo is looking east, so a lot of the strata are dipping west as they got thrusted up

Dr. Lemming said...

Nice quartz vein.