Geology of Brazil

Brazil Travel / Geology - During the Paleozoic, Gondwana merged with Laurasia, forming supercontinent Pangea. In this era, when the sea level was about 300 to 400 m higher than today, the syneclises (intercratonic sedimentary basins) of the Neoproterozoic South American Platform were flooded by the sea (marine transgressions).

When you travel to Brazil's Mid - West region, you will find evidences of these floodings for example in form of the the Devonian (400 Ma) layers of the Ponta Grossa formation (Paraná supersequence) at Chapada dos Guimarães National Park ( (Paraná Basin / Mato Grosso).

Of particular interest it the warm and fertile Carboniferous period (360 - 300 Ma), which provided us with most of the energy ressources we use today. During this period, large part of the surface of the continents were similar to today's tropical freshwater swamps. It was the first time in history that large tropical plants occupied the Earth's surface. The remnants of these plants are nowadays available in form of coal. The dead marine organisms in the shallow waters surrounding the continents were transformed into oil and gas.