The Geological Formation of Britain
Melvyn Bragg and guests Richard Corfield, Jane Francis and Sanjeev Gupta discuss the geological formation of Britain.Around 600 million years ago the island that we now call Britain was in two parts, far to the south of the Equator. Scotland and north-western Ireland were part of a continent (Laurentia) that also included what is now North America. To the south-east, near the Antarctic Circle, meanwhile, you would have found southern Ireland, England and Wales. They formed a mini-continent (Avalonia) with what is now Newfoundland.Over the course of hundreds of millions of years, as they inched their way north, the two parts came together - first as part of a vast unitary continent (Pangaea), later as a promontory on the edge of Europe, and eventually, as sea levels rose, as an island. The story of how Britain came to be where it is now, in its current shape - from the separation of North America and Europe to the carving out of the English Channel - is still being uncovered today.
Guests
- Richard Corfield
10 episodes
Visiting Senior Resarch Fellow at Oxford University - Jane Francis
8 episodes
Professor of Palaeoclimatology at the University of Leeds -
Sanjeev Gupta No other episodes
Royal Society-Leverhulme Trust Research Fellow at Imperial College London
Related episodes
-
Doggerland
27 Jun, 2019 930 History of the Ancient World -
The Nation State
14 Oct, 1999 320 Political science -
The Picts
9 Nov, 2017 930 History of the Ancient World -
Plate Tectonics
24 Jan, 2008 550 Earth sciences and geology -
Early Geology
12 Apr, 2012 550 Earth sciences and geology -
The Earth’s Origins
5 Jul, 2001 500 Science -
The KT Boundary
23 Jun, 2005 560 Fossils and prehistoric life -
The Celts
21 Feb, 2002 930 History of the Ancient World -
Ice Ages
14 Feb, 2013 550 Earth sciences and geology -
Roman Britain
1 May, 2003 930 History of the Ancient World -
The Lindisfarne Gospels
20 Feb, 2003 270 History of Christianity -
Antarctica
24 Jun, 2010 990 History of other areas -
The Danelaw
28 Mar, 2019 940 History of Europe -
The British Empire
8 Nov, 2001 900 History -
The Iron Age
24 Mar, 2011 930 History of the Ancient World -
The British Empire’s Legacy
31 Dec, 1998 940 History of Europe -
The Industrial Revolution
23 Dec, 2010 940 History of Europe -
Slavery and Empire
17 Oct, 2002 900 History -
Megaliths
2 Mar, 2023 930 History of the Ancient World -
Catastrophism
30 Jan, 2014 550 Earth sciences and geology
Programme ID: b00n8t48
Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00n8t48
Auto-category: 550 (Earth sciences)