What did the Isle of Man look like hundreds
of millions of years ago? It has certainly
not always been the shape it is today. Over 500 million years, the
Island has been assembled like a giant 3D jigsaw puzzle from different
pieces of continents, broken apart again by earthquakes and intruded
by molten rock. Click here to
see the Island form in a series of animations with audio commentary.
MGS Events Members of the Manx Geological Survey
recently performed geological experiments for the young antiquarians
of the Isle of Man Natural History and Antiquarian Society. More...
Geology photographs
depicting Folds and Faults; Sedimentary
Rock and Structures; Fossils and Igneous Rocks.
Click here to view.
Manx Group Fossils Subtle variations in
fossil shapes due to the effects of evolution have been crucial
in telling us the age of the Manx Group. More...
G.W. Lamplugh
produced some of the most important geological research on the Isle
of Man. Working between 1892 and 1897, he made the first official
geological map of the Island.More...
The Manx Geological Survey was
registered as a charity in July 2000 and established to promote
education and research on Manx geology. This website is intended
to provide information on the rocks of the Isle of Man for the non-specialist
and publicise the results of new scientific research.
The
geology of the Isle of Man provides a fascinating insight
into 500 million
years of Earth’s history. The Island is only a small
remnant of a once mighty mountain range formed when the continents
of Europe and North America collided. Prior to that the area lay
in an ocean thousands
of kilometres south of the equator at a water depth of several
hundred metres. Over time the area drifted northwards experiencing
as it went huge variations in sea level and climate such that
at one time desert conditions prevailed whilst at another it was
part of a shallow tropical sea. On the
way to becoming the Manx landscape we recognise today, it has
been split by earthquakes, ignited
by volcanoes, smothered by
ice and exploited by man.
MGS Events
Geology photographs
