Measuring the altitude of the Country's highest mountains. It is an old and audacious project that will offer an update of cartographic data from the entire Brazilian territory. The project brings another advantage: the correction of values for Brazilian altitudes that had been established up to that point will help to update the aeronautic charts and may even avoid aerial accidents in the surveyed regions. A scientific partnership agreement between the IBGE and the Military Engineering Institute (IME) enabled the raising of information for the new calculation of the altitude for four Brazilian peaks. Named as the Culminant Points Project, the work has as its main objective the measurement with absolute accuracy of the altitude of the highest peaks in the Country. Using more modern resources and new technologies, such as the GPS (Global Positioning System) – a sophisticated satellite navigation and positioning system -, the expeditions that were held this year revealed changes in the altitudes of four Brazilian peaks: Pico da Neblina, Pico 31 de Março, Pico das Agulhas Negras and Pico da Pedra da Mina. And the project does not end there: still this year, the IBGE intends to measure the altitudes of the Pico da Bandeira (whose last altitude value was measured at 2889.8 m) and Pico do Cristal (2780 m), both in the border between Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo.

See below the new altitude measurements of the Culminant Points in Brazil.

It was with the intention to serve the demands and make more accurate information available to the society that the IBGE’s Geodesy Coordination created the Culminant Points Project.

The IBGE/IME partnership succeeded and four Brazilian peaks already have corrected altitude values. In spite of difficulties with the unstable climate, difficult access and weight of the equipment, the team that is involved with the Project was satisfied with the results. The climb also counted with the participation of a technician that is specialized in Geodesy and two cartography engineers of the IBGE, in charge of installing and using the geodesic GPS receiver correctly, in addition to the military personnel in charge of logistics.

New measurement reveals changes in position between the Pico da Pedra da Mina and the Pico das Agulhas Negras

Located in the state of Amazonas, more precisely in the municipal district of São Gabriel de Cachoeira, the Pico da Neblina and Pico 31 de Março are the two highest points of Brazil. The new measurements confirmed data that had already been disclosed by other expeditions to these regions. In the meantime, the novelty remained with the change of position between the two highest peaks of the Mantiqueira Mountains. The suspicion, that already existed, may now be confirmed by the IGBE: the Pico da Pedra da Mina, located in the municipal district of Passa-Quatro, Minas Gerais, is higher than the Pico das Agulhas Negras, belonging to Itatiaia, in Rio de Janeiro.

Earlier measurements were made with barometer

The official Geography institute and manager of the Brazilian Geodesic System, the IBGE is the responsible agency for the correct characterization of the Brazilian territory, as well as the disclosure of information about its spatial dimensions.

Prior to 2004, the last measurement had been made in the 1960’s by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through the First Boundaries Delimitation Commission. The barometer was used at that time, an instrument that was created in the 17th century to measure atmospheric pressure, altitude and likely weather changes. As of the creation of new technologies, it became possible to measure the altitude of the most elevated points in the Country with accuracy. The GPS (Global Positioning System) was developed in the United States and started to be commercialized as of the 1980’s.