Christian's Blog

  The countries that lie within the UK and especially the territory of England do not experience any volcanic activity. Volcanic activity within the UK is so rare that "it has been around 60 million years since there was an active volcano in the UK". Though, back 60 million years ago, when volcanoes were erupting actively, "r emnants of these explosive landforms can be found throughout the countryside. From Snowdon and Ben Nevis to the Borrowdale hills," some of where Britain's most impressive extinct volcanoes are located today. One of the most impressive volcanoes that erupted approximately 65 million years ago is in the Cullin Hills, Isle of Skye. Researchers describe it as the " most dramatic mountains in the United Kingdom. If they look fearsome now, imagine what they must have been like at the height of their lava-spewing life in the early Paleogene era". If you did not know, the UK has many extinct volcanoes, primarily due to the UK be...

England is located in the Northwestern section of Europe, far from plate boundaries causing only minor earthquakes every once in a blue moon since there are no active faults. The geology of England and primarily the UK overall is so old that it has "hundreds of millions of years across much of the west of mainland Britain – and it is riddled with ancient fault lines that were once very active but are now virtually extinct." The last earthquake to occur in England had a most severe recent earthquake, of "5.2 magnitude, struck Market Rasen in Lincolnshire in 2008 and was felt as far away as Newcastle and London." It looks like London hasn't had an enormous earthquake hit in a while (over a decade). Since earthquakes are not expected within England's area due to a lack of active tectonics and plates, the seismicity is shallow (shown below). The picture below illustrates the empty amount of seismic activity throughout the entirety of England/UK.  Sources: Univer...

  England is located primarily on the Eurasian Plate. England/UK are not technically located on any one plate margin, so they are not active tectonically. That does not mean it has not been active before; according to The Geological Society that " a series of tectonic events has resulted in the current location and structure of the UK - in the last 700 million years, we have gradually drifted north from near the South Pole!". The current location of England/UK is more south of the North Pole than originally in years past. The closest plate boundary to the UK is a Divergent Plate Boundary on the Mid - Atlantic Ridge. It is located in the middle of the Mid - Atlantic Ridge, so it is distant from where earthquakes can cause tsunamis. The U.K. and primarily England have minimal earthquakes according to a U.K. news website Express " on average the earthquakes in the UK range from magnitude-0.7 to magnitude-2.0." Overall, England and the other sections of the U.K. are...