Formation of summit surfaces and duricrusts in the Cerrado: Lajeado Ridge - TO

• Grant number: 24/17384-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2024
• End date: November 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences - Physical Geography
• Principal Investigator: Fernando Nadal Junqueira Villela
• Grantee: Beatriz Marina Tavares
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Ancient surfaces remain as chronogeographic markers in the landscape, tracing back to past processes that highlight the polygenetic nature of the involved regions and their configurations as inherited mosaics, allowing for the study of paleoenvironmental conditions and paleogeographic reconstructions. Summit surfaces, located at the top of tabular landforms, for example, could provide a more accurate approximation of these geomorphic surfaces, given their higher topographic positions according to the surrounding area, suggesting an older geological age compared to the adjacent lower surfaces, which receive sedimentary material and lack significant erosional sculpturing. In this context, this project aims to identify these geomorphic summit surfaces, hypothesizing that they are conditioned by duricrusts in the tabular landform of Lajeado Ridge, in the east of Tocantins capital, Palmas, also influencing the development of the drainage system that sculpts the landscape. By investigating the morphological and morphometric characteristics of the landforms, areas where these duricrusts occur and their influence on surface roughness will be assessed. This will involve multiple Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAV) overflights for aerial photogrammetric surveys covering the area, with consequent processing of the Digital Terrain Model (DTM) to make it possible (1) to indicate the occurrence of duricrusts according to landform mapping and (2) to understand the surface hydrodynamics in the area. Finally, the duricrust morphological, physical and chemical data, already collected within the scope of a larger project to which this research is linked, will be analyzed in order to understand the general characteristics of the duricrusts on each mapped surfaces.