CORNWALL'S GEOLOGY

The geology of Cornwall is complex. Over the last 400 million years Cornwall has seen volcanoes and lava flows, regular submarine landslides, earthquakes and tremendous upheavals. At various times it’s had deep ocean basins, mountains as high as the Alps, hot desert plains and frost-shattered landscapes. And of course the minerals created have shaped the history of Cornwall through mining and quarrying over many centuries.

But the beauty of it is that so much is visible, mainly because of the extensive coastal cliffs but also in the coastal and moorland tors, sometimes in bizarre shapes as in the Camel and the Cheesewring. There is much geology to see, and this book is an attempt to explain it in as straightforward a way as possible.