The Chapada do Araripe, also known as the Serra do Araripe, is a ''

chapada A chapada () is a plateau found in the Brazilian Highlands. The chapadas, which are usually described as mountain ranges, are capped by horizontal strata of sandstone. They show the original surface, which has been worn away by the rivers, leaving ...

'' (

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides ...

) in northeastern

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. The chapada forms the boundary of Ceará and

Pernambuco Pernambuco () is a States of Brazil, state of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast region of the country. With an estimated population of 9.6 million people as of 2020, making it List of Brazilian states by population, sev ...

states, and forms the watershed between the Jaguaribe River of Ceará, which flows northward into the Atlantic, and the much larger basin of the São Francisco River of Pernambuco and neighboring states, which drains eastward into the Atlantic. The

Santana Formation The Santana Group is a geologic group, formerly included as the middle part of the Araripe Group, in the Araripe Basin of northeastern Brazil. The group comprises the Crato, Ipubi and Romualdo Formations and is dated to the Aptian to Albian sta ...

, which is rich with fossils from the early

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

, lies at the base of the chapada. The

Araripe manakin The Araripe manakin (''Antilophia bokermanni'') is a species of critically endangered bird from the family of manakins (Pipridae). It was discovered in 1996 and scientifically described in 1998. The species epithet commemorates Brazilian zoologi ...

(''Antilophia bokermanni''), a bird only described in 1998, is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to Chapada do Araripe.

Etymology

The word "Araripe" stems from the Tupi word ''ararype'', meaning " macaw at the river" (''arara'', macaw + y'', river + ''pe'', at).NAVARRO, E. A. ''Dicionário de tupi antigo: a língua indígena clássica do Brasil''. São Paulo. Global. 2013. p. 545.

References

Floresta Nacional do Araripe-Apodi - Brasil

Mountain ranges of Brazil Global Geoparks Network members Geoparks in Brazil Landforms of Pernambuco {{Pernambuco-geo-stub