Geologia de Brasil [The Geology of Brazil]

An official government report on Brazil’s economic geology.

The detailed assessment of Brazil’s geology was authored by Avelino Ignácio de Oliveira and Othon Henry Leonardos and published in Rio de Janeiro in 1943 (2nd edition). Over 800 pages of text, photographs, diagrams, and maps are divided into six sections and twenty chapters.

The contents offer a chronological overview of the geologic history of each Brazilian state, fossil descriptions, information on valuable minerals, oil, and arable land, and much more. A large folding map, dated 1937 and drawn by J. Bueno and M. Verissimo (Good and True?) is affixed to the back. It uses vibrant colors to highlight geologic deposits and notes railroads, oil wells, volcanoes, and various geographic features.

Brazil’s oil industry was in its infancy at the time of publication. The National Petroleum Council was created in 1938 to manage the mining and research and the first commercially viable well was drilled in 1941. There were significant concerns about foreign influence (the authors reference ‘alien models’ in the preface) and the Brazilian government passed legislation (also in 1941) to protect access to oil and natural gas deposits, setting the stage for the establishment of Petrobras in 1953.

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