A map of relief compartments based on the fluvial dissection degree analysis was elaborated for the region of the Paraíba do Sul river middle valley and neighbouring mountainous areas. The studied area includes the coastal mountain ranges of "Serra do Mar" and "Serra da Mantiqueira" as well as the adjacent hinterland hilly areas, in the limits of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais states. The geologic setting is characterized by Precambrian crystalline basement transected by transcurrent faults and shear zones with NE-SW orientation. During the Meso-Cenozoic an important tectonic reactivation occurred and was responsible for the formation of remarkable geological features: the uplifting of the "Serra do Mar" and "Serra da Mantiqueira" and installation, between them, of the Continental Rift of the Southeastern Brazil (CRSB), with ENE direction, where the Paraíba do Sul river is installed. The three major relief domains are stood out in the produced map, where some conspicuous aspects, not emphasized in previous studies, can be observed, as the E-W orientation of the major compartment limits. The relief compartments are mostly controlled by NE-SW, NW-SE and E-W structures. Their spatial arrangement reproduce a rhomboidal structural pattern that is related to the Cenozoic tectonic evolution of the Southeastern Brazil, where the rhomboidal features are limited in the eastern and western sides by NE-SW lineaments associated with the reactivation of Precambrian structures, and in the northern and southern sides by transference zones with E-W orientation, formed during the Atlantic Ocean opening and reactivated during the drift phase.
*Financial support by CNPq, FUJB-UFRJ and CEPG-UFRJ.