Central Brazil Cerrado

On May 19, 2025, Landsat 9 captured this image of the Serra de Caldas in the state of Goiás, Brazil. The oval plateau is covered by a biologically rich savanna and grassland ecosystem called Cerrado. The Cerrado covers about one-fifth of Brazil’s land area and represents the second-largest biome in South America behind the Amazon. These lands are home to thousands of plant, bird, reptile, and mammal species, many of which are found nowhere else on the planet.

Learn more about this area sometimes referred to as the “cradle of waters.”

Text credit: Lindsey Doermann

Image credit: NASA/Wanmei Liang; Landsat data: USGS