The Pico do Cabugi, also known as the Serra do Cabuji or Serrote da Itaretama, is the only

extinct volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...

in Brazil which preserves its original form. It is 590 meters high and is located in the Cabugi Ecological State Park in the

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

Angicos Angicos is a municipality in the state of Rio Grande do Norte in the Northeast region of Brazil. See also *List of municipalities in Rio Grande do Norte Rio Grande do Norte ( en, Great River of the North) is a state located in the Northeas ...

in the state of

Rio Grande do Norte Rio Grande do Norte (, , ) is one of the states of Brazil. It is located in the northeastern region of the country, forming the northeasternmost tip of the South American continent. The name literally translates as "Great Northern River", ref ...

. Composed mainly of basaltic alkaline intrusive rocks, this volcano was the result of a major geological upheaval in the

tertiary Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...

era which were responsible for various volcanic cones in the rocky state of Rio Grande do Norte. They have been dated using radioactive isotopes as the most recent of Brazilian igneous rocks (± 19 million years). The presence of small

xenolith A xenolith ("foreign rock") is a rock fragment (country rock) that becomes enveloped in a larger rock during the latter's development and solidification. In geology, the term ''xenolith'' is almost exclusively used to describe inclusions in igne ...

s indicate that these rocks have originated at a great depth (about 60 km). The researcher Lenine Pinto argues that when Brazil was first discovered by

Pedro Álvares Cabral Pedro Álvares Cabral ( or ; born Pedro Álvares de Gouveia; c. 1467 or 1468 – c. 1520) was a Portuguese nobleman, military commander, navigator and explorer regarded as the European discoverer of Brazil. He was the first human in ...

, it was Pico do Cabugi that he first saw and not

Monte Pascoal Monte Pascoal is a mountain to the south of the city of Porto Seguro, in the state of Bahia, Brazil. According to history, it was the first part of land viewed by Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, allegedly In law, an allegation is ...

References

Landforms of Rio Grande do Norte Volcanoes of Brazil {{RioGrandedoNorte-geo-stub