Guarapari

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Wikipedia

Guarapari
Municipality
Municipality of Guarapari
Flag of Guarapari
Flag
Official seal of Guarapari
Seal
Official logo of Guarapari
Logo
Nickname: 
"Barra"
Location in Espírito Santo
Location in Espírito Santo
Coordinates: 20°39′S 40°30′W / 20.650°S 40.500°W / -20.650; -40.500
Country Brazil
RegionSoutheast
State Espírito Santo
Founded1679
Government
 • MayorRodrigo Borges (Republicanos)
Area
 • Total
591.815 km2 (228.501 sq mi)
 [1]
Elevation
15 m (49 ft)
Population
 (2022[2])
 • Total
124,656
 • Estimate 
(2024)
134,944
 • Density210.633/km2 (545.538/sq mi)
DemonymGuarapariense
Time zoneUTC−3 (BRT)
HDI (2010)0.731 – high[3]

Guarapari is a coastal town of Espírito Santo, Brazil, a popular tourist destination. Its beach is famous for the high natural radioactivity level of its sand.

Geography

Location

Guarapari is a part of Greater Vitoria, 47 km south of the state capital Vitória. Its population is 126,701 (2020) and its area is 592 km2. It is a well-known tourist destination, known for its curving white sand beaches backed by commercial development, which extend southward to Nova Guarapari and Meaípe. With its heavily built-up coastline like Vila Velha and Vitória, it caters heavily to seasonal tourists, and consequently has quite a dramatic seasonal population fluctuation.

The municipality contains the 953 hectares (2,350 acres) Concha d'Ostra Sustainable Development Reserve, established in 2003 to protect the mangroves of the Bay of Guarapari.[4] It also contains the 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres) Paulo César Vinha State Park, which protects an area of dunes, lagoons and marshes along the Atlantic shore.[5] Formerly called the Setiba nature reserve, it is a pristine example of a coastal ecosystem and important for local turtle and bird populations.

History

Around the year 1000, the Indigenous people who occupied the southern coast of what is now the state of Espírito Santo were driven inland by the invasion of Tupi peoples from the Amazon. In the 16th century, when the first European explorers arrived in the region, it was inhabited by one of these Tupi peoples: the Temiminós.[6]

In 1585, the Jesuit priest José de Anchieta founded a Jesuit mission to catechize the Indigenous people of the region: the village of Rio Verde, or the village of Santa Maria de Guaraparim. The village had a convent and a church dedicated to Saint Anne. For its inauguration, Anchieta composed the Auto Tupi. In 1677, the church of Our Lady of the Conception was built. In 1679, the village of Guaraparim was elevated to the status of a town. In 1835, the district of Guarapari was created. In 1860, the district received a visit from the Brazilian Emperor Dom Pedro II. In 1878, it became a municipality. In 1891, it acquired city status.[7]

At the end of the 19th century, European settlers (mostly Italians who landed on the Benevente River) settled in the municipality's interior, founding the towns of Todos os Santos and Rio Calçado, among others. These families' main economic activity was coffee, in addition to the cultivation they cultivated for their own subsistence. In 1948, its own town hall was established. In the mid-1960s and 1970s, Guarapari became nationally famous due to the purported medicinal properties of its monazite sands. As a result, there was a growing tourist wave around the city.[8]

Transportation

The city is served by Guarapari Airport.

Radioactivity

Along a roughly 500-mile (800 km) portion of Brazil's Atlantic coast that runs from north of Rio de Janeiro up to the region south of Bahia, the sands of old beaches are naturally radioactive. Sea waves pound coastal mountains rich in monazite, a phosphate of rare earth metals containing uranium and thorium.[9][10] The background radiation level on some spots on the Guarapari beach read 175 mSv per year (20μSv/h);[11] Some other spots can reach dosages of up to 55 μSv/h.[12] The average exposure level across the United States is 0.34 μSv/h[13] while a chest x-ray is a one time exposure of 0.1 mSv, and an abdominal and pelvic CT scan with and without contrast is 20-30 mSv.[14]

In the Guarapari city, radiation levels are far lower: a study among 320 inhabitants showed an average received dose of 0.6 μSv/h, corresponding to 5.2 mSv per year.[15]

References

  1. ↑ "Guarapari Código: 3202405". Cidades e Estados (in Portuguese). IBGE. Retrieved 2019-03-09.
  2. ↑ IBGE 2020
  3. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 8, 2014. Retrieved August 1, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. ↑ "RDS de Concha D'Ostra" (in Portuguese). IEMA: Instituto Estadual de Meio Ambiente e Recursos Hídricos. Archived from the original on 2016-10-28. Retrieved 2016-10-27.
  5. ↑ "Parque Estadual Paulo César Vinha" (in Portuguese). IEMA: Instituto Estadual de Meio Ambiente e Recursos Hídricos. Archived from the original on 2016-10-26. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
  6. ↑ guarapari.net.br. "guarapari.net.br | Guia de empresas e serviços em Guarapari". guarapari.net.br (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2025-09-08.
  7. ↑ Informação, AlphaTec Tecnologia da. "História e Geografia - PREFEITURA MUNICIPAL DE GUARAPARI - ES". www.guarapari.es.gov.br (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2025-09-08.
  8. ↑ Informação, AlphaTec Tecnologia da. "História e Geografia - PREFEITURA MUNICIPAL DE GUARAPARI - ES". www.guarapari.es.gov.br (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2025-09-08.
  9. ↑ "Heavy Minerals". Industrias Nucleares do Brasil. Archived from the original on 2012-11-27. Retrieved 2012-08-06.
  10. ↑ "High natural background radiation areas – Guarapari, Brazil". Japan: Health Research Foundation.
  11. ↑ Pfeiffer, W. C.; Penna-Franca, E.; Ribeiro, C. C.; Nogueira, A. R.; Londres, H.; Oliveira, A. E. (December 1981). "Measurements of environmental radiation exposure dose rates at selected sites in Brazil". Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências. 53 (4): 683–691. ISSN 0001-3765. PMID 7345962.
  12. ↑ "Brazil 2012: sunbathing on radioactive beaches" (Video). at 50s. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21 – via YouTube.
  13. ↑ "Relative Radioactivity Levels". Berkeley RadWatch. UC Berkeley. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
  14. ↑ "Radiation Sources and Doses". Radiation Protection. EPA.
  15. ↑ N. Fujinami; T. Koga; H. Morishima. "External Exposure Rates from Terrestrial Radiation at Guarapari and Meaipe in Brazil" (PDF). International Radiation Protection Association.