if you watch and listen (and do your research) the Parque Nacional da Tijuca tells you a story of creation. Many of its mountains are made of the oldest rocks in the world – metamorphic rock.  Masses amount of granite and gneiss under the earth’s surface mashed together under high pressure and heat over 600 million years ago. Through millions of subsequent years these rocks were pushed up above the surface, creating mountains.  As I discussed in my posts about the tectonic plate rift at Thingvellier, Iceland  the earth’s continents were formed , originally all bunched together as one land mass called Pangaea:

Slowly Pangea broke apart and the continents began to take shape:

Sorry for the long preamble, but it sets the stage for the next grouping of my favorite photos from Vitor Marigo’s book, Parque Nacional da Tijuca.  You can actually imagine the earth going through its stages of growth up to the emergence of man.

 

 

 

N.B. – many of Vitor’s glorious photos are double page spreads which are very difficult to reproduce – my apologies – but you can see  them in all their magnificence  in the book – let me know if you want to purchase!

More to come!

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