There are no active volcanoes in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, although a few do exist in some British Overseas Territories, including Queen Mary's Peak in Tristan da Cunha, Soufrière Hills volcano on the Caribbean island of Montserrat, as well as Mount Belinda and Mount Michael in the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
The last time that volcanoes were active in what is now the United Kingdom was the early Palaeogene period, just over 50 million years ago (Ma), associated with the opening of the Atlantic Ocean. Modern day hills and mountains within the UK which are sometimes described as extinct volcanoes are usually the deeply eroded roots of volcanoes active in prehistoric times.[1] Some locations popularly believed to be volcanoes, such as The Wrekin, actually have different origins, such as being sites where volcanic material was deposited.[2]
List
editBelow is a list of extinct volcanoes in the United Kingdom.
England
editNorthern Ireland
editName | Elevation | Location | Last eruption | |
---|---|---|---|---|
metres | feet | Coordinates | ||
Carrickarede | - | - | 60 Ma | |
Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland | - | - | 55°15′00″N 6°29′07″W / 55.25000°N 6.48528°W | Palaeogene |
Scawt Hill | 378 | 1240 | 54°54′38″N 5°54′55″W / 54.9105°N 5.9154°W | - |
Slemish | 437 | 1434 | 54°52′55″N 6°5′49″W / 54.88194°N 6.09694°W | Palaeogene |
Slieve Gallion | 528 | 1732 | 54°44′N 6°46′W / 54.73°N 6.76°W | - |
Slieve Gullion | 573 | 1880 | 54°08′N 6°26′W / 54.133°N 6.433°W | Palaeocene |
Tievebulliagh | 402 | 1319 | 55°04′27″N 6°07′59″W / 55.07419°N 6.13302°W | - |
Scotland
editWales
editName | Elevation | Coordinates | Last eruption | |
---|---|---|---|---|
metres | feet | |||
Deganwy Castle volcano[18] | 110 | 631 | 53°17′51″N 3°49′44″W / 53.2975°N 3.8290°W | - |
Mynydd y Dref[19] | 244 | 801 | 53°16′59″N 3°51′45″W / 53.2831°N 3.8624°W | 450 Ma |
Rhobell Fawr | 734 | 2408 | 52°48′50″N 3°48′07″W / 52.814°N 3.802°W | - |
Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa) | 1085 | 3560 | 53°4′7″N 4°4′34″W / 53.06861°N 4.07611°W | - |
Treffgarne Rocks | - | - | 51°52′27″N 4°58′10″W / 51.8742°N 4.9694°W | Ordovician |
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Emeleus, C.H.; Bell, B.R. (2005). The Palaeogene volcanic districts of Scotland (Fourth ed.). Nottingham: British Geological Survey, NERC. p. 6. ISBN 0852725191.
- ^ "Shropshire - Features - The Wrekin". BBC. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
- ^ "Volcano models". British Geological Survey.
- ^ Carboniferous and Permian igneous rocks of England and Wales (PDF). 2002. Retrieved 27 November 2023.
- ^ British GS Calton Hill, accessed 21 October 2008
- ^ a b Charlotte, Becquart (14 January 2021). "Cornwall's volcanoes that were active hundreds of millions of years ago". Cornwall Live. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
- ^ Scrutton, Colin. "Page 1 Cheviot - early Devonian volcanic rocks, granite and basement". Archived from the original on June 11, 2021.
- ^ Geology of England and Wales, pp118ff
- ^ Oldroyd, David Roger (2002). Earth, Water, Ice and Fire - Two Hundred Years of Geological Research in the English Lake District. Geological Society. p. 277. ISBN 9781862391079. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
- ^ Smith, Sandy; Roberts, Clive. "The Geology of Lundy" (PDF). LFS. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
- ^ Cheshire, S. G.; Bell, J.D. (1 December 1976). "The Speedwell Vent, Castleton, Derbyshire: A Carboniferous Littoral Cone". Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society. 41 (2): 173–184. doi:10.1144/pygs.41.2.173.
- ^ "The ancient volcano that's 81 miles from London". Heritage Daily. Heritage Daily. 10 May 2020. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
- ^ Gernon, T M; Upton, B G J; Ugra, R; Yucel, C; Taylor, R N; Elliot, H (2016). "Complex subvolcanic magma plumbing system of an alkali basaltic maar-diatreme volcano (Elie Ness, Fife, Scotland)" (PDF). Lithos. 264: 70–85. doi:10.1016/j.lithos.2016.08.001. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
- ^ "What lies beneath a volcano? New images reveal all..." 13 October 2020. Retrieved 24 November 2023.
- ^ "Eshaness Coast, Shetland: A blast from the past". Scottish Geology. Retrieved 2 May 2021.
- ^ "Peniel Heugh". Geology North. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
- ^ Hamilton MA, Pearson DG, Thompson RN, Kelly SP, Emeleus CH (1998) Rapid eruption of Skye lavas inferred from precise U-Pb and Ar-Ar dating of the Rum and Cuillin plutonic complexes. Nature 394: 260-263
- ^ "Put a cork in it". Geocaching.com. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
- ^ BBC website Archived August 29, 2007, at the Wayback Machine