Anticline, Pembrokeshire
The mudstones and sandstones that you see below in Saundersfoot contain clues showing that they were laid down as muds and sands close to a river mouth during the Carboniferous Period, around 320 million years ago. Nearby there are rock layers with plant fossils and thin coal seams that were formed in tropical swamps.
Around 20 million years later, southwest England became joined to the rest of what we now know as Britain. These rocks were crumpled up into down-folds (synclines) and up-folds (anticlines - like this one), and broken along many faults – each causing many earthquakes – as huge forces squeezed the Earth’s crust and formed mountains, now largely eroded away.
Around 20 million years later, southwest England became joined to the rest of what we now know as Britain. These rocks were crumpled up into down-folds (synclines) and up-folds (anticlines - like this one), and broken along many faults – each causing many earthquakes – as huge forces squeezed the Earth’s crust and formed mountains, now largely eroded away.
Anticline: Ladies' Cave, Saundersfoot, South Wales
Linda McArdell, OUGS
