THEME 9 – Integrating Geodiversity into National Park Conservation Policy

ESTABLISHMENT OF GEOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION STRATEGIES IN THE IGUAÇU NATIONAL PARK, BRAZIL

¹Gil Piekarz –gil@onda.com.br

²Antonio Liccardo – liccardo@ambienteimagem.com.br

³Eduardo Salamuni – salamuni@ufpr.br

^1,2,3 Minerais do Paraná S.A - MINEROPAR

Iguaçu National Park is one of Brazil’s main landmarks with the greatest waterfalls in the world; more than a million tourists per year come to visit. It offers an impressive set of natural beauty. Enclosed in the Mesozoic basalts, the greatest continental volcanic event in the history of the planet took place, the park is testimony of continents partition (South America-Africa).

The recent establishment of interpretative panels and leaflets in the park with geological information has given important results. The inclusion of this information as touristic product brings a new vision of the natural heritage to the people and contributes a lot to environmental awareness. The panels show the tourist a summary of the regional geology, the main litologic and stratigraphic characteristics of the basalts overflowings and the acting geological processes, which have defined the present geomorphology.

With images from satellites, photos, diagrams and schematic profiles, the content emphasizes the origin and characteristics of the different basaltic levels and their implications with the level on scale structure of the waterfalls.

The strategic localization and presentation of interpretative panels in other languages (Portuguese, Spanish, English) have brought a great display of the content. This method is a great advertisement for the geologic science and proposes an important tool of environmental awareness to the Iguaçu National Park visitor.

Keywords: - Iguaçu; waterfalls; geotourism; geological interpretation.