Geologists have discovered the secret and ancient link that united the British continent to France



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Geologists have learned that besides Laurentia and Avalonia, Armorica was the third land mass involved in the creation of the British continent.

Geologists have recently discovered the truth about the old connection between the British mainland and France, and if it was previously thought that the British continent was the result of a collision between two land masses, we now know different land masses that caused its creation.

According to University of PlymouthGeologists once thought that the formation of England, Scotland and Wales was a direct result of the merger of the land masses Laurentia and Avalonia in a process that spanned 400 million years. But geologists at the University of Plymouth have now concluded that a third land mass called Armorica is the missing link in the creation of the British mainland and the third land mass involved in this process.

This has greatly contributed to explain why there is so much tungsten and tin in the southwestern region of England, metals that can be found in abundance in regions like the Brittany, but not so much in other parts of the UK. .

The lead author of the new study, Dr. Arjan Dijkstra, explained that although there were no visible lines, Cornwall and South Devon are geographically very different from anywhere in the UK -United.

"It's a completely new way of thinking about how Britain was created. It has always been assumed that the border between Avalonia and Armorica was below what would appear to be the natural boundary of the English Channel. But our results suggest that, although there is no physical surface line, there is a clear geological boundary separating Cornwall and South Devon from the rest of the United Kingdom.

As part of the search for the new study, geologists found 22 different locations in both Cornwall and England that suffered from events like volcanic eruptions. Although these eruptions and other geological events occurred there are more than 300 million inhabitants, they left their magma footprints.

Using X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) on rock samples taken from these 22 sites, geologists were able to analyze the strontium and neodymium of the sampled rocks, which showed that there was a defined estuary boundary at Camelford.

As noted by Dr. Dijkstra, the links between England and France have been even stronger than previously thought.

"We always knew that about 10,000 years ago, you could have walked from England to France. But our results show that millions of years ago, the links between the two countries would have been even stronger. It explains the immense mineral wealth of the once-mysterious south-west of England, and offers a fascinating new insight into the geological history of the United Kingdom. "

The new study that shows the connection that connects the British mainland to France has been published in Nature Communications.

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