The UK’s geological journey
The speaker was one of our members, Jim Handley, and the essence of his talk was to explain how, due to plate tectonics, the UK we know today became unified from 3 separate sources, and how it had moved over the last 500 million years from near the South Pole to its present location.
He gradually built up the background information by explaining how plate tectonics moves large units of land masses powered by convection currents in the underlying mantle. He also illustrated how central oceanic ridges generate new material from upwelling currents, and the subsequent subduction of denser oceanic crust below continental margins.
These plates only move at a few centimetres a year. When viewed on a video mock-up, it was impressive to see the world’s land masses moving thousands of kilometres in just one minute. We could see not just where the parts of the UK moved from, and where they collided with each other, but how other continents moved to their present locations.
Within his talk Jim also referred to early geologists who worked in Wales or who played a key part in starting to work out the huge timescales involved. He focused too on the key landscape features resulting from the three mountain building episodes which have impacted the UK – in the Forest of Dean, for example.
In conclusion, Jim showed where the UK might end up in 250 million years’ time – at the North Pole!
