Atafona is a district in the town of São João da Barra, located northeast of Rio De Janeiro in Brazil. The Brazilian town of Atafona was once a popular destination. But now it is becoming a ghost town, as the relentless rise in sea levels turns the former tourist hotspot into abandoned location.
Over the last 40 years, the sea has been eroding away at the beachside district, leaving many of the buildings abandoned and decaying at the hands of nature. In total, 14 blocks have now been swept away including a main promenade, Atlantic Avenue. We prepared 30 stunning photos of Atafona in Brazil.
The Atlantic Ocean advances an average of six meters a year in this small town north of Rio de Janeiro, and the ocean has already swallowed more than 500 houses, turning this once idyllic coastline into an underwater graveyard of wrecked structures.
Extreme erosion, which places Atafona among the 4% of the world’s coastline where the sea consumes more than five meters per year has now worsened due to climate change, with sea level rise in the long term and in the short and medium term with exceptional hangovers and prolonged periods of rain and drought.
Why Atafona Disappearing Into The Sea?
As a result of human action, over the past half century the Atlantic Ocean has been relentlessly consuming Atafona. Due to climate change, there is little hope for a solution. Instead, Atafona will slip into the sea. Deforestation of mangroves in recent decades is another reason why Brazilian town year by year disappearing into the sea.
As early as the 1960s, signs of increased coastal erosion were becoming evident. Atafona’s position at a point where a major river meets the sea, coupled with deforestation near the estuary contributed to the erosion. Climate change played its part with a rise in sea level proving catastrophic. Sea water began to encroach upon stretches of beach close to the mouth of the river. Seafront property began being swallowed up by the sea in the 1970s and it has continued ever since
