An Overview of the Geology of Britain

Abstract

The very creation of Britain as an island is a fascinating story in itself resulting from hundreds of millions of years of tectonic activity wherein land masses collided and split apart again as they moved across the surface of the globe in their tectonic ballet. Even since Precambrian times, which ended 542 million years ago, the various land masses have been pirouetting across the globe with areas which are now oceans variously covered by land and vice versa. The history of the Earth of course reaches much further back to 4,600 million years ago, but if we documented the various tectonic events just since the Precambrian period, we should have an interesting list. If just one of these events had been different, if a moving land mass had altered its course by just a few degrees, if a continental split had occurred at a slightly different position, if the timings had been slightly desynchronised, then Britain as we know it may not have been created at all. Even much later on, if ice ages, glaciations and subsequent melts had not contrived to form the North Sea and the English Channel, then there would be no Britain as a separate entity. The very existence of Britain is as a result of ­random tectonic and climatic activity. Conse­quently, Britain owes its existence as an island as much to chance as anything else. And yet, this island embodies a pocket history of much of the aforementioned activity, nicely wrapped and presented in a beautiful little package. It is indeed an island gem.