This Volcanic Isle - The Violent Processes That Forged the British Landscape

This Volcanic Isle explores the rich geological history of the British Isles over the past 66 million years, since the disappearance of the dinosaurs. From the Isle of Wight needles to the Giant's causeway to the Sticklepath faultline in Devon, this book recounts how earthquakes and eruptions, plumes and plate boundaries, built the British Isles.

List of contents

• 1: Archi-tectonics


• 2: The Big Tilt


• 3: Age of Fire


• 4: Caught between the Plates


• 5: Age of Ice


• 6: Highland Fling


• 7: The Rocky Road


• Index

About the author

Robert Muir-Wood is head of research at the world's largest catastrophe modelling company, RMS, and a visiting professor at UCL's Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction. He was a research fellow at the University of Cambridge, and since 1995 has worked commercially in catastrophe risk science and modelling. He was lead author on two IPCC reports. Muir-Wood's work primarily focuses on the history of science, seismotectonics, and probability risk assessment. He is the author of several books including The Dark Side of the Earth: the battle for the Earth Sciences 1800-1980 (1985), and The Cure for Catastrophe: How We Can Stop Manufacturing Natural Disasters (2016).

Summary

This Volcanic Isle explores the rich geological history of the British Isles over the past 66 million years, since the disappearance of the dinosaurs. From the Isle of Wight needles to the Giant's causeway to the Sticklepath faultline in Devon, this book recounts how earthquakes and eruptions, plumes and plate boundaries, built the British Isles.

Additional text

For the most part, Britain exists in a state of tectonic tranquility ... but it was not always thus, as this entertaining new book makes clear. And the evidence of this green and pleasant land's violent past is all around us - you just need to know where ... to look.

Product details

• Authors: Editor, Muir-Wood, Robert Muir-Wood, Robert (Chief Research Officer Muir-Wood, Muir-Wood Robert
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.09.2022
• EAN: 9780198871620
• ISBN: 978-0-19-887162-0
• No. of pages: 368
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > General, dictionaries; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Geosciences > Geology; European History, SCIENCE / Earth Sciences / Seismology & Volcanism, British & Irish history, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Geology, geomorphology and the lithosphere, Physical geography & topography, Volcanology & seismology, Physical geography and topography, Geology & The Lithosphere, Volcanology and seismology