Beyond the Beaches: Revealing the Real Puerto Rico II
Source: New York Academy of Sciences
The Academy started planning a scientific expedition to Puerto Rico in 1912 and by 1914 the first groups of scientists were traveling to the island to begin conducting research. The findings from this field work were published in a 19-volume series titled The Scientific Survey of Porto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Much of the research was conducted and published in the early half of the 20th century, when relatively little was known about the region.
Expanding the Breadth of the Survey
Because of the success of the initial endeavor, the survey eventually expanded beyond the island of Puerto Rico to also include the Virgin Islands. Academy scientists observed “the physiography of the region was remarkably uniform,” according to historian Simon Baatz in the 2017 update to his seminal history of the Academy published in 1988.
The scientists reported three cycles of erosion in the area including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Baatz wrote: “The first cycle, which formed the ‘upper peneplane of Porto Rico’ was ended by uplift; the second cycle destroyed the earlier peneplane and ‘produced an old erosional surface approximately 700 feet below the first’; while the third cycle, which was terminated by submergence, resulted in the formation of a lower peneplane.” These fundamental geological structures are estimated to have been created during the conclusion of the Tertiary period.
Cont'd.
LINK:
https://www.nyas.org/ideas-insights/blog/beyond-the-beaches-revealing-the-real-puerto-rico-ii/