The History of Cuba, vol. 1

by Willis Fletcher Johnson

The existence of marine Pliocene in Cuba has not been proved. There may be pliocene rocks in the vicinity of Havana some 60 feet above the sea level. If these are true Pliocene, it would indicate a subsidence during that time of from ISO to 180 feet. The character of the fauna found in the quarry on Calle Infanta does not indicate a greater depth than from SO to 70 feet for the water in which the limestone was deposited.

Subsequent to this deposition, there was an elevation which caused the land to stand some forty or fifty feet higher than it does to-day. This probably took place in early Pleistocene times, at which time the Isle of Pines and Cuba were connected. One reason for the belief in this elevation is the existence of an old, deep and comparatively narrow cut in the bed of the present channel leading out of Havana harbor. There is further evidence of a general elevation found in borings for water, three miles southeast of the city of Santiago.

At a depth of some 70 feet below the sea level, in the Rio San Juan Valley, stream-carried pebbles were found. This would indicate that the bottom of this valley once stood at least 70 feet or more above sea level. Subsequent to this elevation, there was a subsidence varying from 40 to 70 feet. There were doubtless other slight oscillations during the Pleistocene period, and these may be going on at the present time, although we have no evidence from records of actually measured monuments established since the Spanish occupation of the island.

Paleontologic, biologic and physiographic research seems to indicate that there has been no land connection between Cuba and North America at any time since the beginning of the Tertiary, unless perhaps during the Oligocene period, and it seems probable there was no connection whatever during cretaceous times.

Cuba furnishes a very interesting field, not only for geologic research, but for a far more extended study and survey of its many important mineral zones both for scientific and for economic reasons.

Topographically the surface of Cuba may be divided into five rather distinct zones, three of which are essentially mountainous. The first includes the entire eastern third of the province of Oriente, together with the greater part of its coast line, where the highest mountains of the island are found. The second includes the greater part of the province of Camaguey, made up of gently rolling plains broken by occasional hills or low mountains, that along the northern coast, and again in the southeast center of the province, rise to a height of approximately 1,500 feet above the general level.

The next is a mountainous district including the greater part of eastern Santa Clara. The fourth comprises the western portion of this province together with all of Matanzas and Havana. The surface of this middle section is largely made up of rolling plains, broken here and there by hills that rise a few hundred feet above the sea level.

The fifth includes the province of Pinar del Rio, the northern half of which is traversed from one end to the other by several more or less parallel ranges of sierras, with mean altitudes ranging from 1,000 to 2,000 feet, leaving the southern half of the province a flat plain, into which, along its northern edge, project spurs and foot hills of the main range.

The highest mountains of Cuba are located in the province of Oriente, where their general elevation is somewhat higher than that of the Allegheny or eastern ranges of the United States. The mountainous area of this province is greater than that of the combined mountain areas of all other parts of the island. The mountains occur in groups, composed of different kinds of rock, and have diverse structures, more or less connected with one another.

The principal range is the Sierra Maestra, extending from Cabo Cruz to the Bay of Guantanamo, forty miles east of Santiago. This chain is continuous and of fairly uniform altitude, with the exception of a break in the vicinity of Santiago where the wide basin of Santiago Bay cuts across the main trend of the range. The highest peak of the island is known as Turquino, located near the middle of the Sierra Maestra, and reaching an altitude of 8,642 feet.