Field Trip

From Gondwana to the Costões e Lagunas Geopark Project

Field trip leaders: Katia Mansur and Renata Schmitt (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

This field trip takes you along the coast of Rio de Janeiro to explore hypersaline lagoons, beachrocks, coastal dunes, Precambrian rocks and landscapes shaped by the breakup of Gondwana and the opening of the South Atlantic Ocean. You will visit places explored by Charles Darwin in 1832, during the voyage of HMS Beagle, where geological processes and biological elements helped inspire his scientific thinking. Just two hours from Rio de Janeiro, these remarkable landscapes are part of the proposed Costões e Lagunas Geopark (UNESCO), where geoconservation, environmental education and geotourism come together.