Geology of the North West

• Main Author: Wakefield, Oliver
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: British Geological Survey 2019
• Subjects: Earth Sciences; permafrost
• Online Access: http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/527162/; https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/527162/1/Man_Presentation_DONE.pdf

The modern landscape in North West England is the culmination of hundreds of millions of years of earth processes. Processes which have worked to create, shape and carve the landscape we recognise as the North West in countless ways, both profoundly and also in more subtle ways. The geological history of the North West and associated resources have been instrumental in shaping the modern urban space and human history of the area. This link between the geological past and the people that reside in the region is not always obvious, though the actions of processes that often ceased countless millions of years ago are still impactful today. For instance the relatively wide ranging geological units found near the surface in the region record a range of past environments that include open marine conditions full of ancient organisms, through to warm lush equatorial tropical settings, to inhospitable environments where billowing volcanic ash and rubble covered the area, to arid like deserts with windblown sand dunes, all the way to more recent cold permafrost and glacial conditions. Each depositional environment and the accompanying tectonic processes have together produced the modern region we know as the ‘North West’. This presentation will provide an overview of the landscape of the region and will discuss some key geological periods and their products with reference to the modern impacts of the area’s geological heritage.