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The geology of Great Britain is renowned for its diversity. As a result of its eventful geological history, Great Britain shows a rich variety of landscapes across the constituent countries of England, Wales and Scotland. Rocks of almost all geological ages are represented at outcrop, from the Archaean onwards.
Carboniferous Limestone is a collective term for the succession of limestones occurring widely throughout Great Britain and Ireland that were deposited during the Dinantian Epoch of the Carboniferous Period. These rocks formed between 363 and 325 million years ago. Within England and Wales, the entire limestone succession, which includes subordinate mudstones and some thin sandstones, is known as the Carboniferous Limestone Supergroup.
The geology of Wales is complex and varied; its study has been of considerable historical significance in the development of geology as a science. All geological periods from the Cryogenian to the Jurassic are represented at outcrop, whilst younger sedimentary rocks occur beneath the seas immediately off the Welsh coast. The effects of two mountain-building episodes have left their mark in the faulting and folding of much of the Palaeozoic rock sequence. Superficial deposits and landforms created during the present Quaternary period by water and ice are also plentiful and contribute to a remarkably diverse landscape of mountains, hills and coastal plains.
The Moorfoot Hills are a range of hills south of Edinburgh in east central Scotland, one of the ranges which collectively form the Southern Uplands.
The geology of the North Sea describes the geological features such as channels, trenches, and ridges today and the geological history, plate tectonics, and geological events that created them.
Fforest Fawr is an extensive upland area in the county of Powys, Wales. Formerly known as the Great Forest of Brecknock in English, it was a royal hunting area for several centuries but is now used primarily for sheep grazing, forestry, water catchment and recreation. It lies within the Brecon Beacons National Park.
The River Giedd is a principal tributary of the River Tawe, Wales. The river runs within the county of Powys and lies almost wholly within the Brecon Beacons National Park.
Fan Gyhirych is a mountain in the Fforest Fawr section of Brecon Beacons National Park in south Wales. It lies within the county of Breconshire, and administered as part of the unitary authority of Powys.
Fforest Fawr Geopark is a Geopark in the Brecon Beacons National Park, south Wales. It is the first designated Geopark in Wales having gained membership of both the European Geoparks Network and the UNESCO-assisted Global Network of National Geoparks in October 2005. The Geopark aims to promote and support sustainable tourism and other opportunities to improve the economy of the area whilst safeguarding the natural environment. Its aims largely coincide with the statutory duties and purpose of the National Park within which it sits.
Moel Penderyn is a hill on the edge of Penderyn village, in the Brecon Beacons National Park in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taff, south Wales. It also appeared on older maps as 'Y Foel Penderyn'. Its summit at 371m is marked by a trig point.
The Neath Disturbance is a geological structure which stretches across south Wales from Swansea Bay northeastwards as far as Hereford in western England. It consists of a series of both faults and associated folds which were active during the mountain-building period known as the Variscan orogeny. This line of weakness probably featured in the earlier Caledonian Orogeny and perhaps reflects a more ancient line of weakness in the basement rocks.
Cribarth, sometimes referred to as the Sleeping Giant, is a hill in the Brecon Beacons National Park located in the traditional county of Brecknockshire in southern Wales. The summit lies on the broken ridge at an elevation of 428 m (1,404 ft) at OS grid reference SN 831143. To its west is a 426-metre-high (1,398 ft) rounded top at SN 829144 which lies just to the northwest of a mile-long ridge that forms the main bulk of the hill. The ridge attains a height of 423 m (1,388 ft) at its southwest end and this spot is marked by a trig point. Both of these latter high points are adorned by Bronze Age burial cairns.
The Grwyne Fawr is a river in the Brecon Beacons National Park in south Wales. A section of it forms the administrative border between Powys and Monmouthshire and also of the historic counties of Brecon and Monmouth. The river and its major tributary the Grwyne Fechan flow into the River Usk at Glangrwyney.
The Carreg Cennen Disturbance is a zone of geological faults and folds in south and mid Wales which forms a part of both the Church Stretton Fault Zone and the Welsh Borderland Fault System. To the southwest it is known as the 'Llandyfaelog Disturbance'.
Fan Fraith is a top of Fan Gyhirych in the Fforest Fawr section of the Brecon Beacons National Park in the county of Powys, south Wales. Its summit is at a height of 2192 feet or 668 m. It lies within Fforest Fawr Geopark.
The Myddfai Steep Belt is a geological structure which affects rocks of Silurian and Devonian age in mid Wales. It extends for tens of miles across country from near Carmarthen northeastwards via Mynydd Myddfai, Mynydd Bach Trecastell and Mynydd Epynt to the vicinity of Llangammarch Wells. Within this linear zone, the rock beds have been tilted steeply to the southeast. The folding took place in late Silurian to early Devonian times. This structure gives rise to a series of landscape features along its length, not least the steep northwest-facing scarps of the hills and ranges mentioned above. Indeed, the feature can be seen as a significant lineament in aerial and satellite views of Wales.
The geological structure of Great Britain is complex, resulting as it does from a long and varied geological history spanning more than two billion years. This piece of the Earth's crust has experienced several episodes of mountain building or 'orogenies', each of which has added further complexity to the picture.
In geology, a disturbance is a linear zone of disturbed rock strata stretching for many miles across country which comprises a combination of folding and faulting. The British Geological Survey record a number of such features in South Wales including the Neath Disturbance, Pontyclerc Disturbance, Carreg Cennen Disturbance and the Cribarth Disturbance, the latter sometimes also known as the Tawe Valley or Swansea Valley Disturbance. The southwestward continuation of the Carreg Cennen Disturbance is known as the Llandyfaelog Disturbance.
This article describes the geology of the Brecon Beacons National Park in mid/south Wales. The area gained national park status in 1957 with the designated area of 1,344 km2 (519 sq mi) including mountain massifs to both the east and west of the Brecon Beacons proper. The geology of the national park consists of a thick succession of sedimentary rocks laid down from the late Ordovician through the Silurian and Devonian to the late Carboniferous period. The rock sequence most closely associated with the park is the Old Red Sandstone from which most of its mountains are formed. The older parts of the succession, in the northwest, were folded and faulted during the Caledonian orogeny. Further faulting and folding, particularly in the south of the park is associated with the Variscan orogeny.
The geology of the Gower Peninsula in South Wales is central to its character and to its appeal to visitors. The peninsula is formed almost entirely from a faulted and folded sequence of Carboniferous rocks though both the earlier Old Red Sandstone and later New Red Sandstone are also present. Gower lay on the southern margin of the last ice sheet and has been a focus of interest for researchers and students in that respect too. Cave development and the use of some for early human occupation is a further significant aspect of the peninsula's scientific and cultural interest.
References
- ↑ Howells, M.F. 2007 'British Regional Geology: Wales' Keyworth, Nottingham, British Geological Survey
- ↑ Ordnance Survey Explorer maps 165 'Swansea', OL12 'Brecon Beacons National Park: western area'
- ↑ British Geological Survey 1:50,000 map sheets 230 'Ammanford', 231 'Merthyr Tydfil', 247 'Swansea' & accompanying memoirs
- ↑ Woodcock, W. & Strachan, R. 2000 'Geological History of Britain and Ireland' Blackwell Science (publishers), Cambridge