Abstract
Gold was abundant in the city of Cuiaba and was the starting point for is emergence and development. Bandeirantes (explorers/fortune hunters during the colonial period), mostly coming from Sao Paulo, made their expeditions into inland Brazil firstly to capture and enslave natives and, in this process, discovered important alluvial deposits associated with the rivers in the region. Today, this precious metal is still present and being prospected in the Baixada Cuiabana region, and is found preserved (impregnated and visible) in the plaster of the walls of the Church of Nossa Senhora do Rosario e Sao Benedito, for example. Many buildings in the central areas were built and adorned with ex situ geological material such as ironstone and blocks of milky quartz, and some of these buildings are identified in this work as an example of the use of geodiversity as a constructive and historical element. Ironstone is described as a solid, reddish sedimentary rock resulting from a chemical alteration process (lateritization), and the quartz blocks come from gold veins that cut the rocks of the Cuiaba Group, in the Baixada Cuiabana region. In addition to these materials that are present in some locations and represent geodiversity elements, an in situ example of geodiversity is described. It is an exposed geological fault that stands out in the landscape, located in an aligned hill where historic constructions were built. Because it is of unique geoscientific interest and preserved within the central urban boundary of the city of Cuiaba, this place can be considered the first geosite, which is described in the present work.
Highlights
The name Cuiabá, capital of the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil, derives from the indigenous word Cuyaverá, which means ‘bright otter’, one of the small animals that lived in these very distant lands
As it is in other urban centers in Brasil (Nascimento et al 2018; Del Lama 2019) (Nascimento et al 2018; Del Lama 2019), geodiversity is present in various moments of the history of Cuiabá
The geodiversity in Cuiabá is present in historic buildings, a cultural asset that may become a geotouristic itinerary for an interested public
Summary
The name Cuiabá, capital of the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil, derives from the indigenous word Cuyaverá, which means ‘bright otter’, one of the small animals that lived in these very distant lands. The history of this city begins with an element of geodiversity, with the arrival of explorers in the region searching for primary and alluvium gold, and became known as the Gold City. The historic center grew from the orderly construction of buildings located in prominent locations, such as the top of hills and mounts, which are composed of metarenites of the Cuiabá Group
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