Rio de Janeiro, BrazilBuilding Earth’s Landscapes

Nova Iguaçu “Volcano”The Nova Iguaçu volcano is located in the state of Rio de Janeiro. It is highly debated in the academic community whether or not a volcano exists at all.

In the 1980s, geologists Viktor Carvalho Klein and André Calixto Vieira proposed that the site at Nova Iguaçu was an extinct volcano. They proposed that the site had a volcanic cone (central crater), crater, and bomb (mass of molten rock). The hypothesis of a volcanic site was highly debated, and the site has never been officially classified as a volcano. The scientists also proposed that there was lava flow at Nova Iguaçu, but instead, what was thought to be lava was alkaline magnetism. There is no substantial evidence to support the theory.

Recently, some geological journals have discussed the inexistence of every piece of evidence that Klein and Vieira described (the journals state that the crater, cone, bomb, and lava flow either do not exist, or do no prove the existence of a volcano in Brazil).

Nova Iguaçu is a highly contested natural phenomena in Brazil. While its land features are similar to a volcano, there is no evident to demonstrate eruption or volcanic activity.

References:Aires, J. A. et al. The Genetic Reconsideration of the Nova Iguaçu Model. Retrieved from http://www.scientificcircle.com/en/49301/genetic-reconsideration-nova-iguacu-volcano-model-state-rio/

Global Volcanism Program. Retrieved from http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=1805-051.

Above: The site of the Nova Iguaçu volcano. There are similarities between the land features pictured here and with a volcano (there appears to be a crater and a cone.Below: the traditional structure of a volcano

Robin Peacock

Geog 1202- E01Building Earth’s Landscapes

March, 15, 2013

Volcanos