Satellite image of Caravelas, Bahia
This rural Brazilian coastal area is designated as an Atlantic rain forest, where annual precipitation usually exceeds 80 inches (200 centimeters). The general greenness of the vegetated cover supports the classification of a humid equatorial climate with no specific dry season. Barely visible are intersecting runways of a local airport approximately 5 miles (8 kilometers) north of the small town of Caravelas, north of the larger river estuary near the center of the photograph. Eastward toward the coast are numerous ancient beach terraces (parallel, striated lines). Two highly reflective, linear features, which are probably improved highways, traverse the coastal plains and connect interior cities with this small port city. The lighter field patterns are possibly large sugarcane plantations. The vegetated floodplain of the Alcobaca River is barely visible near the northern edge of the photograph. Cape Baleia (17.5N, 39.0W), on the north central coast of Brazil illustrates a good example of multiple coastal sand spits. Over a several thousand year time period, shifting regimes of wave and current patterns have piled up sand onto a series of beach ridges and tidal lagoons. Offshore, several prominent reefs and sandbanks can be seen paralleling the coast. The largest is the Recife da Pedra Grande (Big Rocks Reef). Caravelas, Bahia, Brazil January 1993.