The rocks that form the bones of our countryside reveal much about our islands’ tumultuous history. Christopher Jackson tells the geological story of Britain – in six stones
Professor Chris Jackson is a geologist. Born and raised just south of the Peak District, Chris spent much of his childhood camping and walking, and has always been fascinated by the geological past of the Earth and the landscapes that shape us.
Some rocks are burnt deep into the British psyche. The creamy chalk of the White Cliffs of Dover. Or the black basalt of the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland, tumbling steeply from green pastures into the stormy chop of the North Atlantic Ocean.
And yet, beyond their mere beauty, symbolism and mysticism, the rocks of the British Isles have shaped us. They have defined where we live, how we live and who we are. They power our everyday lives and provide shelter from the infamous British weather.
The rocks that comprise these islands contain a rich story of the evolution of Earth itself; of the birth and death of oceans and mountains over 4.5 billion years. When I, a geologist, hold a pebble in my hand, gaze at the shape of our coastlines, or study the bricks of our homes, I’m trying to read this ‘rock record’. We geologists are trained to use our deep-time perspective to understand how the long-term construction, deformation and destruction of land has provided us with a rich, seemingly unending range of life-critical resources.
These rocks form the fabric of our existence, so here I celebrate some of the unsung ‘rock stars’ of British geology, shining a light on the many ways in which they have made us.
1 BASALT: Arthur’s hot seat
Edinburgh seems an unlikely place to find a life-threatening geological hazard. But if you had been standing on Arthur’s Seat – the craggy hill that punches through the city – around 345 million years ago in the Late Carboniferous, things would have been very different. For here, within the tranquil green spaces of Holyrood Park, lies the head and exposed heart of an ancient volcano, now eroded by time and touch. The evidence is unmistakable. Tens-of-metres-thick layers of basalt reveal now-cooled lava flows.
