Trail (UK)

Are there any extinct volcanoes in the UK?

- Erin Tovall, via Facebook

QLots of mountains in Britain look like they could be volcanic, but how many of them actually are? Do we have volcanoes in the UK? Did we ever?

Jeremy says

Sixty million years ago, chunks of the UK straddled the edges of tectonic plates. These junctions of continenta­l-sized sections of the Earth’s crust are tumultuous places, with sections trying to ride over one another or force each other sideways. Where one plate overrides another (subduction), rock of the lower plate melts to form magma. This rises to the surface where it erupts to form volcanoes.

Although Britain is in a relatively stable geological period, some of our best mountains owe their existence to volcanoes. The Lake District and Snowdonia show evidence of gigantic eruptions and hold examples of super-volcanoes. They are about 450 million years old and have been weathered, eroded, shifted around the Earth’s surface, and finally glaciated to form the landscapes we see now. A more recent example of an extinct volcano are the rocks Edinburgh Castle stands on; since its formation 350 million years ago, the surroundin­g softer rocks have been eroded to leave the small craggy outcrop we see today. The most recently extinct volcanoes in Britain are the ones that formed parts of Mull, Rum and The Cuillin on Skye. Other examples, if you fancy tracking them down, include Ben Nevis, The Cheviot, Glen Coe and the Ardnamurch­an Peninsular.

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