Brazil: Minerals and Features of Relief

The country of Brazil is located in South America and occupies almost the most of it. On the local territory, low relief predominates.

The state has many mineral deposits scattered almost throughout Brazil, but most of them are located in mountainous areas. In order to be able to study these deposits in detail, a geological map is needed, which can be seen in the photo.

Features of the relief

The relief of Brazil can be divided into several component segments:

• Coastal zone;
• Marshland Pantanal;
• The Brazilian and Guiana Highlands;
• The Amazonian lowland.

And we are not without a reason to pay attention to the peculiarities of the relief of Brazil - the minerals of these places are the main wealth of the country and the key to its successful economic development. And the formation of mineral deposits directly depends on the structure of the earth's surface.

Coastal zone

The coastal zone of the country is a plain that is located along the shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean and includes part of the Brazilian plateau. In the north, the transition from the plain to the mountainous terrain is smooth, but its southern part is characterized by a sharp transition from mountains to sands.

It should be noted that the coastal zone has in its arsenal not only sandstones and lagoon lakes, but also wetlands. There are also natural harbors and granite remains, with which Brazil is particularly rich. The minerals found in this locality are of the fuel type - oil and gas.

Marshland Pantanal

The Pantanal Swamps are located to the southwest of the Paraguay River. They are close enough to the states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul. This territory is simply created for cattle breeding, because here, thanks to the contrasting climate, a more diverse flora grows than in other similar parts of the country.

The Brazilian and Guiana Highlands

The Brazilian highlands are quite extensive. It is located in the south and center, occupying about 30% of the territory of the state of Brazil. Minerals, whose deposits are located in this area, are among the most valuable. This is rock crystal, iron ore, etc.

The highland is characterized by the presence of fertile soil. The highest point of this region is Mount Bandeira (2890 m). In its southwestern part is a lava plateau that crosses the Parana River and its tributary Iguaçu. They form waterfalls in the place where the plateau ends.

Part of the Brazilian upland is the Guiana. They are divided by the Amazonian lowland. Here, in the north of the state of Brazil, minerals are represented by uranium, manganese, gold, bauxite, etc.

The mountain of La Neblin, located here, is considered the highest point not only of this highland, but of the whole country, and rises at 3014 m above sea level.

Amazonian Lowland

The Amazonian lowland is represented by a fairly large area. And most of it is located on the territory of Brazil. The local places are rich in iron ore and gold, and deposits of gas and oil have been discovered in the lower reaches of the Madeira watercourse.

The Amazon is considered the largest river in the world, but there are a lot of other water bodies in the country, in particular, the rivers whose basins define the basic low relief.

Brazil: Minerals

A lot of minerals are concentrated in Brazil : all kinds of ores, precious metals, precious and semiprecious stones, oil, gas, bauxites, bituminous shales, uranium, rare earth ores, tin, lead, nickel, tungsten, barite, zinc, copper, phosphates, lead , Lithium. And this is only a small list.

Many lands are still not fully explored, therefore new deposits are opened almost every week.

Combustible minerals

Oil and natural gas in the area are represented by small reserves - 136 oil fields and 14 gas fields .

Deposits of bituminous shales are located in the state of Paraná. These fossils are represented by argillaceous and limestone facies with inclusions of diabase and basalt.

There are no large reserves of coal in the country. Their total number is less than 2 billion tons.

The uranium ore deposit is located in the states of Bahia, Ceará and the Serra de Jacobin mountains. Thorium and uranium are mainly concentrated in the northeast of Brazil, closer to the shores of the Amazon.

Deposits of ore

The amount of iron ore in the country is 17% of the world's total reserves. It is mined in Mato Grosso in the Minas Gerais basin. The main bauxite resources are in the Pair in the Amazon basin area. According to the research, Brazil ranks 1st among the countries of Latin America in their reserves.

Tungsten ores are in the northeast of the country. They are mainly represented by scheelite skams. However, in the south of the Rio Grande do Norte, these fossils can be classified as a vein quartz type. Nickel ores, mainly of silicate type, are concentrated at great depth in the Goiás area.

Also there are hydrothermal deposits with polymetallic elements (there are more than 120 of them). Note that these untold riches exist here thanks to the peculiarities of the relief of Brazil.

The minerals listed above are most often found in the Ribeira River valley and near the most industrial state of Minas Gerais. And rich deposits of tin are in the territory of Rondônia. Zirconium, tantalum, niobium and beryl elements are extracted from pegmatite ores, which are concentrated in Sao Tome, Seridozinje and Parellas.

Special deposits

The country is also rich in precious metals. The gold mining industry is thriving in Minas Gerais, at the mouth of the Amazon and in Goias. Here, precious and semiprecious stones are mined. In Brazil there are deposits of noble opal, rock crystal, amethyst, diamonds, tourmaline, jewelery beryl, emeralds, agate.

Incidentally, it produces red-orange topaz, which are considered to be the rarest - their main deposits are located near Ouro Preto. And most of the semi-precious elements are located in Minas Gerais, Santa Catarina, Baie, São Paulo, Mato Grosso Goias.