A Serra do Mar It is a set of mountains and hills that characterize the coastal relief of the Southeast and South regions of Brazil, extending for a thousand kilometers between the states of Rio de Janeiro and Santa Catarina. Formed from the erosion of fault scarps, Serra do Mar was constituted from very old rocks of the Brazilian geological structure. It has a mild climate and forest vegetation, being part of the Atlantic Forest biome.
This mountain range is located in densely populated and urbanized areas of the Brazilian territory, where the activity human activity and the intensive exploration of the soil and other natural resources promoted the degradation of the Forest Atlantic. Important for geology, the economy and the environment, the preservation of Serra do Mar is essential for the maintenance of the remaining areas of the Atlantic Forest and for the guarantee of biodiversity Brazilian.
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Summary about Serra do Mar
Serra do Mar is a relief feature that extends over 1,000 kilometers along the Brazilian coast, more precisely between the states of Rio de Janeiro and Santa Catarina.
It integrates the morphoclimatic domain of the seas of Morro.
It was formed from erosion acting on structures known as fault scarps.
It is part of the Atlantic Forest biome, being home to thousands of species of plants and animals, some of them endangered.
It has a tropical high-altitude climate and acts as an orographic barrier to humidity and winds coming from the ocean towards the continent.
Serra do Mar has geological, historical, economic and environmental importance.
What is the location of Serra do Mar?
Serra do Mar is located between the Southeast and South coasts of Brazil. this feature geomorphological characterizes the coastal relief of four different states:
Rio de Janeiro;
São Paulo;
Paraná;
Santa Catarina.
Main features of Serra do Mar
Serra do Mar extends for 1,000 kilometers in a northeast-southwest (NE-SW) direction on the Brazilian coast between the states of Rio de Janeiro and Santa Catarina. This geomorphological feature integrates the domain of the seas of morro and is responsible for separating the landscapes of the coastal plain from the interior of the respective states where it is present. In the narrowest stretches, Serra do Mar is 5 kilometers wide, reaching up to 10 kilometers at the longest points.
The relief of Serra do Mar was sculpted on a very old geological structure and intensely eroded by the action of the erosive agents, which is the Atlantic Shield, a stretch of the crystalline Brazilian shield composed essentially of granitic and metamorphic rocks, such as gneiss. Serra do Mar belongs to what Professor Jurandyr Ross|1| calls the Atlantic orogenetic belt, which formed mountain chains in the geological past, but which, depending on age, were altered by erosion and constitute modest features, such as mountains and hills.
The gaps in Serra do Mar, that is, the difference between the highest and lowest points, reach 1,000 meters. Its highest peak is Pico Bigger, which is located in the Parque dos Três Picos, in the city of Nova Friburgo, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, and rises to 2.366 meters above sea level.|2|
Serra do Mar is inserted in the Atlantic Forest biome. This biome is characterized by the presence of forests (ombrófilas and stationary) and by the formation of varied ecosystems home to hundreds of thousands of species of animals that make Serra do Mar rich in biodiversity.
See too: Brazilian relief — characteristics and formation
What is the climate of Serra do Mar?
The areas through which Serra do Mar passes have a tropical highland climate, marked by mild temperatures for most of the year, high humidity and abundant rainfall, with emphasis on the occurrence of orographic rains (or relief rains, caused by the encounter between a humid air mass and landforms such as mountain ranges and mountains). The mountains and hills of this ancient mountain range act as an important climatic factor capable of influencing the distribution of humidity and winds on a local scale.
How was the Serra do Mar formed?
Serra do Mar was carved on what we call a fault escarpment. To the geological faults are fractures in rock, arising from changes in the pressure exerted on a particular rocky block, and occur due to external or internal factors of planet Earth. In the case studied here, the fault is directly related to the formation processes of the geological base of Brazil and the opening of the Atlantic Ocean.
The formation of Serra do Mar started about 150 million years ago, with the breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana. During this process, the eastern edge of what is now the Brazilian territory was uplifted, and the separation of tectonic plates caused the opening of the Atlantic Ocean and a series of faults in both South America and Africa.
In the case of Brazil, this movement provoked the reactivation of old faults which, over time and the action of erosion agents, gave rise to important geomorphological features, such as Serra do Mar and Serra da Mantiqueira.
As we have seen, in Serra do Mar it is possible to find metamorphic rocks, in addition to the igneous rocks that make up the massifs. The metamorphic rocks of this structure originated from ancient folding and other tectonic movements that date back to the early Paleozoic era.
What is the importance of Serra do Mar?
Serra do Mar characterizes the relief of much of the Atlantic coast of Brazil and can be described as an important testimony of the long process of formation of the basis on which the Brazilian territory was constituted, in addition to retell part of geological history of planet earth. This relief feature was important during the country's occupation process, and many mineral resources were taken from it, which formed the basis of the economy of local cities and towns. Nowadays, tourism can be included in this set of economic activities that are developed in Serra do Mar.
One a large portion of the Brazilian fauna and flora is found in the Serra do Mar, considering that the Atlantic Forest biome extends over it. Not only that, but in this region of the Atlantic Forest there are many speciesendangered plants and animals, as is the case of the tapir (tapir), the capuchin monkey, the puma, the marmoset and, in the case of vegetables, the orchid laelia purpurata.
Know more:Continental drift — theory that explains the formation of continents
Preservation of Serra do Mar
The region where Serra do Mar is located is one of the most populous and with the highest rate of urbanization in the territory. Brazil, which intensifies the use of soil and exploitation of natural resources in general, increasing the effects of the anthropic impacts on the natural environment. In this case, these impacts fall on the ecosystems formed in the interior of the Atlantic Forest, one of the biomes that present the greatest devastation in the Brazilian territory.
Serra do Mar is considered a natural heritage of Brazil, in addition to being contained in one of the Brazilian biosphere reserves, which makes its preservation essential. Also noteworthy is the fact that Serra do Mar acts as a watershed and as a source of many rivers and streams that bathe the areas where it extends.
Two of the most preserved regions of the Serra do Mar and, consequently, of the Atlantic Forest are found in the states of São Paulo and Paraná. In the state of Sao Paulo the main conservation area of Serra do Mar is in the Serra do Mar National Park, created in the year 1977. This park has an area of 360,000 hectares and covers a group of 25 municipalities, being considered the largest biological corridor of the Atlantic Forest in the country. Thousands of species of animals and plants live there, many of them in danger of extinction.
already the state of Paraná stands out as the main preserved area of the Atlantic Forest, where the remaining forest reaches 6 million hectares. There are ongoing projects in the state aimed at recovering deforested areas and protecting the sources of rivers that rise close to or in the Serra do Mar.
Grades
|1| ROSS, Jurandyr L. Sanches. The foundations of natural geography. In: ROSS, Jurandyr L. Sanches. Geography of Brazil. São Paulo: Publisher of the University of São Paulo, 2019. 6 ed. 3 reprint P.13-66.
|2| ESSAY. Pico Maior in Nova Friburgo, RJ, is the highest mountain in the 'Serra do Mar'. G1, 03 Nov. 2014. Available in: https://g1.globo.com/rj/regiao-serrana/noticia/2014/11/pico-maior-em-nova-friburgo-rj-e-maior-montanha-da-serra-do-mar.html.
image credits
[1] TMbux/Wikimedia Commons
[2] Jack Hynes/Wikimedia Commons
[3] Eleessepe/Wikimedia Commons
By Paloma Guitarrara
Geography Teacher
