This Volcanic Isle: The Violent Processes that forged the British Landscape

by Robert Muir-Wood

From the natural geometry of the Giant's Causeway to the sarsen slabs used to build Stonehenge, we are surrounded by evidence for the extraordinary geological forces that shaped the British Isles.

Running coast to coast through Devon is 'Sticklepath', Britain's 'San Andreas', a geological fault with the two sides displaced horizontally by several kilometres, all within the recent geological past. The Sticklepath Fault is just one manifestation of the rich tectonic history of the British region since the asteroid collision that ended the reign of the dinosaurs, 66 million years ago. Raised out of the Chalk Sea, the original Albion was a thickly forested island a thousand kilometres long, surrounded by chalk cliffs, punctuated with great volcanoes, and the site of two trial 'spreading ridge' plate-boundaries. As the volcanoes shifted west, and Greenland separated from Europe, the wind-blown volcanic ash laid the strata on which London was founded. The vertical Needles, known to every Isle of Wight sailor, are part of the northern foothills of the Pyrenees. When the collision subsided, rifting created a garland of Celtic lakes from Brittany to the Outer Hebrides.

In This Volcanic Isle Robert Muir-Wood explores the rich geological history of the British Isles, and its resulting legacy. Along the way he introduces the personalities who shared a fascination for Britain's tectonic history, including Charles Darwin the geologist, Tennyson the science-poet, and Benoit Mandelbrot, the pure mathematician who labelled the west coast of Britain a fractal icon. Here is the previously untold story of how earthquakes and eruptions, plumes and plate boundaries, built the British Isles.

320 pages, Hardcover

Published August 26, 2022

Reviews

[Paul Morris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t actually finish this book but instead glossed over the last few chapters. The level of detail is phenomenal and whilst it tries to explain the past activity to create the British Isles & Ireland in simple terms I found that this was still too complicated for my simple mind. Perhaps it’s my age but I found that it became too much and my failure to then fully finish the book

[David Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrific subject matter for the armchair geology enthusiast. Since the British Isles emerged from the sea around the time of the dinosaur extinction the land has been pummelled and distorted by incredible seismic, volcanic and erosive activity. Robert Muir-Wood writes with clarity and enthusiasm - if at times the technical language is a little opaque - about cataclysmic events of which I had no previous knowledge but left me with a feeling of awe that we live on such a changed and still rapidly altering island. This book will bear repeated reading to fully digest.

[Judith · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting read, if a bit beyond me. I enjoyed his list of geological mysteries in need of solving - & his idea of how we might have dealt with still being attached to the continent, do hope that makes sense. I became a bit bogged down in some of the detail. & I did struggle with his description of faults & how they affected our landscape, which I’m sure was just me being thick!