Category: Glaciers

BOOK REVIEWS England Fossils Geology Glaciers Minerals Minerals Palaeontology Plate Tectonics Volcanoes

Book review: Britain’s Geological Heritage: An illustrated guide to Britain’s spectacular geology and landscape, by Robert Westwood

Jon Trevelyan (UK) Robert Westwood is no stranger to the pages of Deposits. Over the years, I have reviewed several of his geological guides, covering subjects ranging from the Jurassic Coast to Cornwall and the Lake District (ee below). What has always appealed to me about his publications is their … Read More

England Geology Glaciers History & biographies Minerals Minerals Mining Museums & societies

Geology museums of Britain: Grime’s Graves – ancient mining and the stone beneath the Chalk

Jon Trevelyan (UK) A landscape full of holes Grime’s Graves does not announce itself with the drama of a great cliff, cave or quarry. On a low Chalk ridge in the Breckland of Norfolk, the most immediately striking feature is instead the ground itself. Across the grassland are hundreds of … Read More

Fossils Geology Glaciers Palaeontology Scotland

The lost lakes of Britain (Part 1): The Orcadian lakes – reconstructing Scotland’s lost Devonian world

This is the first of a three-part series exploring Britain’s lost lakes – landscapes that once existed across very different timescales, from the Devonian world of the Orcadian Basin to the fleeting ice-dammed lakes of the last Ice Age. In this opening article, we go deep into the Devonian, reconstructing the Orcadian lakes from the evidence preserved in Caithness and Orkney. Here, finely layered sediments, exceptional fossil preservation and subtle environmental clues allow us to rebuild not just the organisms that lived there, but the structure and behaviour of the lakes themselves.

England Fossils Geology Glaciers History & biographies Museums & societies Palaeontology Plate Tectonics

Geology museums of Britain: Cromer Museum, the West Runton Mammoth and the Cromer Forest-bed Formation

Jon Trevelyan (UK) A small museum with a remarkable geological story Tucked away behind the parish church in the centre of Cromer, Cromer Museum occupies a modest site that visitors could easily overlook. Entering through a modern reception building, the museum opens into a narrow courtyard surrounded by a terrace … Read More

England Fossils Geology Glaciers Northern Ireland Palaeontology Plate Tectonics Scotland Volcanoes Wales

A tectonic history of Britain (Part 4): A quiet crust with a long memory – tectonic inheritance in the modern British landscape

Modern Britain lies far from active plate boundaries. It has no active volcanoes and experiences only minor earthquakes, and is often described as tectonically quiet. Yet its landscape is anything but passive. Hills and lowlands, coastlines and drainage patterns all reflect a deep structural inheritance established during earlier phases of continental collision, collapse and rifting.

England Geology Glaciers Northern Ireland Palaeontology Plate Tectonics Scotland Volcanoes Wales

A tectonic history of Britain (Part 3): Britain breaks apart – rifting, volcanoes and the birth of the Atlantic

By the end of the Carboniferous, Britain had already passed through more than one major phase of mountain building, each followed by long periods of erosion and structural collapse. The Caledonian mountains were long eroded, and the Variscan belt of southern Britain was entering its final stages of decay. Yet tectonic influence did not fade away. Instead, the dominant regime changed. Britain was no longer being compressed – it was being stretched.

Climate England Fossils Geology Glaciers Northern Ireland Palaeontology Plate Tectonics Scotland Wales

A tectonic history of Britain (Part 2): When mountains fall – collapse, basins and the foundations of Britain’s lowlands

The collision that assembled Britain at the end of the Silurian (see A history of the plate tectonics of Britain (part 1): Britain assembled – oceans, collisions and the making of a geological patchwork) did not mark the end of tectonic influence on the landscape. Instead, it marked the beginning of a new phase – one that is often less intuitively grasped, but just as important. Mountain belts are temporary features. Once continental collision ceases, thickened crust becomes gravitationally unstable. Erosion strips material from the surface, while extension and faulting affect the deep roots of the orogen. The geological record that follows is not one of rising peaks, but of collapse, subsidence and redistribution.

Climate England Fossils Geology Glaciers Northern Ireland Palaeontology Plate Tectonics Scotland Volcanoes Wales

A tectonic history of Britain (Part 1): Britain assembled – oceans, collisions and the making of a geological patchwork

Britain is often described as geologically quiet. There are no active volcanoes, no subduction zones, and only modest earthquakes. Yet, for its size, few countries display such a concentration of geological variety. Mountain uplands, volcanic terrains, deeply folded rocks, and ancient metamorphic cores all occur within a relatively small area. The explanation for this diversity lies not in Britain’s present tectonic setting, but in a long and complex tectonic history that assembled the country piece by piece from fragments that originated far apart.

Climate Europe Fossils Geology Glaciers Minerals Minerals Museums & societies Palaeontology Plate Tectonics

Geology museums of mainland Europe: The Naturmuseum Südtirol Bolzano, Austria

Jon Trevelyan (UK) The Naturmuseum Südtirol is housed in an historic building in the old town of Bolzano and was opened in 1997 in its current form. Its major theme consists of the geology of South Tyrol, that is, the region’s rocks, minerals (Fig. 1) landscapes, tectonics, its natural habitats … Read More

England Geology Glaciers Plate Tectonics

A pebble across Deep Time: From Staffordshire to Budleigh Salterton and back again

I found the pebble almost by accident, while staying with friends near Eccleshall in Staffordshire. We had taken their two dogs (the much missed Holly and Chutney) out for an afternoon walk – the kind of slow, stop-start loop where the dogs dictate the pace and the conversation meanders as much as the footpath. Along a muddy stretch of track, something smooth and rounded caught my eye: a faintly banded, reddish stone lying half-buried among the usual Midlands gravel and mud.