Transcript How Nidderdale Began - Upper Nidderdale Landscape Partnership

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Nidderdale Rocks:
How Nidderdale
Began
Nidderdale – The beginning
RIPON
HARROGATE
The landscape around the
River Nidd is so special
that it has a title.
It is called an Area of
Outstanding Natural
Beauty (AONB)
Nidderdale is a
river valley in North
Yorkshire
What do you think are some of the special things in the
Nidderdale landscape which might need looking after?
Moorland
Woodland
Homes
Shops
Businesses
Tourism
Nature
History and
heritage
Water
Farming
...And to find out why all these things
are here..
We need to look at the land beneath our feet....
Today, Nidderdale is in the Northern half of the world.
We live in a cool climate in the northern hemisphere.
But when and how was Nidderdale made?
Nidderdale started in a
different part of the world.
We need to travel back
350 million years to find out
more...
350 million years ago, the continents of the world were all
bunched together – a bit like this:
Can you see where
scientists think the UK
started?
Equator
Yes! It was about
here!
Just below the
equator!
Lets find it on the globe from 340 million years ago.
Can you guess where the UK and Nidderdale might be
forming?
Equator
Nidderdale was at the warmest part of the earth.
It lay beneath a warm shallow sea.
Imagine a beautiful tropical ocean
full of corals and sea life
Nidderdale was like the Great
Barrier Reef in Australia
Here, tropical sea creatures died and fell to
the bottom of the shallow sea.
Over millions of years, their shells and bones formed layers of limestone.
The layers got harder and harder as the weight of the layers above
crushed them together.
But what wasB under that?
The skeletons of the tropical creatures landed on a range of
mountains which had already formed under the sea here.
Its top had already been worn off!
It was called the Askrigg Block
So below Nidderdale is a huge lump of very hard
rock called the Askrigg Block ?
Yes. It was on top of this block that the limestone formed.
This limestone can
be found in Upper
Nidderdale
Coldstones quarry,
Greenhow
Goyden Pot,
Lofthouse
How Stean
Gorge,
Lofthouse
When you look at it closely, you can see how the
limestone has built up in layers
Millions of years later, the sea level got lower as water froze at the poles.
Plants grew on the land above the water.
Mud formed over time
This was washed off the land into the sea..
It covered the lime sediments. This happened over and again
This created new layers on top of the limestone called the
‘Yoredale’ shale, silts and sandstones.
More limestone was also laid down in between these layers,
where lots of fossils can still be found.
You can find fossils of real sea creatures in these layers of
Nidderdale limestone and other rocks
This can be
polished like
marble and used
in buildings
Look carefully and you will find some
‘Nidderdale marble’ pillars at Fountains
Abbey which are full of small fossils.
Visit the geology section of Nidderdale Museum to see
fascinating fossils in a number of different types of Nidderdale
rocks.
It was found in a broken
roof tile from the
abandoned village of
‘Lodge’ at Scar House
Reservoir.
This is a fossilized brachiopod, on
display at Nidderdale Museum,
When the land was not covered in sea, giant plants grew
in swampy ground in some parts of Nidderdale.
Look carefully at this rock
from Pateley Bridge. Can
you seen the print of the
lycopod tree branch from
millions of years ago?
Stone from Scot Gate Quarry, Pateley Bridge
On display at the Nidderdale Museum.
The rotting remains of these plants made another
deep layer, which became the coal seams in the
Upper Dale.
Coal
But what about the dark rock we see everywhere in
Nidderdale called millstone grit?
320 million years ago, Nidderdale was still in the tropics,
but had become part of a big river delta like this one.
Tonnes of grit were washed
on top of the layers of
sand, mud and limestone
already there.
This layer has become the hard-wearing dark millstone grit
which we see in many places in Nidderdale.
Why are
theisn’t
rocksNidderdale
that were underneath
near the surface
Why
still underwater?
now?
280 million years ago, moving land collided together making
huge earthquakes which bent and cracked the rock
Some of the rock was
pushed upwards.
Also, later, hot liquid with metal and other minerals in it
crept into the cracks left in rocks by the earthquakes.
Sometimes beautiful
crystals were formed.
Flourite can be found in
Coldstones Quarry,
Greenhow
And valuable metals
became part of the rocks
along the fault and crack
lines in this area.
Lead ore (galena) and calcite can be
found at Greenhow
Iron ore and ‘bog’ iron can be
found in many parts of Nidderdale
For the next 200 million years, Nidderdale drifted
northwards a few centimetres every year.
At this time dinosaurs were in charge of
the earth and sea.
Streams and rivers cut into the landscape, eventually
forming the river Nidd and the dale itself.
Earthquakes continued to fold and
shape the rocks.
Surface layers eroded, leaving different
rock types at the surface.
Millstone grit
Shales
Limestone
Older rocks
Millstone grit
From 2 million to 12,000 years ago, the climate kept
changing from warm to...freezing......and back again.
In the coldest times the whole of the UK was covered in ice sheets.
130,000 – 75,000 years ago hyenas, lion, woolly mammoth,
hippos and narrow-nosed rhino roamed Nidderdale
Different animals came
and went, depending on
the climate.
The temperature
changed dramatically in
between these times.
When it became very cold, ice formed. Then it melted when the
climate warmed.
The ice made a huge heavy glacier which changed the upper valley from a v-shape
to a u-shape.
The ice moved slowly, scraping part of the sides and bottom of the Nidd valley
as it moved and dumping it at various places in the dale.
Each time the glacier melted, vast amounts of water caused large underground
caves to be formed in the permeable limestone as well as the river and large lakes.
The extra water in the river eroded the valley floor too.
What about all the loose sand, gravel and mudstones in
Nidderdale?
Glacier action
The glaciers scraped sediments and rocks from
the valley floor and sides and ‘dropped’ them
when the ice melted.. (Blue areas)
River action
The rivers and streams in Nidderdale continue to
move stones, break them
and change their shape.
The stones and sediments
are dropped where the
river slows down.
Weather
The cold, wind and rain still breaks stones into smaller
pieces and changes their shape, just like at Brimham Rocks.
The last glacier in Nidderdale melted about
11,000 years ago, but the landscape has
continued to change.
The weather?
Animals?
Human beings?
What do you think is most responsible for this?
Image Credits
We gratefully acknowledge the use of the following images in this document:
Slide 2: Map of England’s counties: By Nilfanion and Dr Greg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18769989
Slide 8, 9, 24, 27, 30: These images, originally available on the internet via S Scotese’s website www.scotese.com are now able to be used via an app.
[License Information (c) 2010, C. R. Scotese These maps may be used or modified in any manner for personal use, teaching, research or in scientific
publications as long as appropriate credit is given to the author
Moore, T.L., and C.R. Scotese., 2016, Ancient Earth: Breakup of Pangea, Vers. 1.7, iOS Mobile Application, retrieved from http://itunes.apple.com
License
The license for Ancient Earth conforms to Apple’s Licensed Application End User License Agreement with additions to follow:
Paleoglobe images produced by Ancient Earth: Breakup of Pangea The individual images produced by Ancient Earth: Breakup of Pangea are the sole,
intellectual property of C. R. Scotese, PALEOMAP Project. These maps may be used or modified in any manner for non-commercial personal use and
academic purposes such as: teaching, research, lectures, seminars, thesis research, and research grant proposals. The paleoglobe images produced by
Ancient Earth: Breakup of Pangea may be freely used in non-profit scientific publications and journals (paper or on the web) as long as appropriate credit is
given to the author (see below for credit line). The copyright imprimatur may not be altered in any way.
Slide 10: Small image of coral and fish: By Mark Peter [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons - File:Dendrogyra
cylindrus (pillar coral) (San Salvador Island, Bahamas) 1 (15513345363).jpg
Large aerial view of the Great Barrier Reef: By Sarah_Ackerman - http://www.flickr.com/photos/sackerman519/4251357083/, CC BY 2.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30740514
Slide 11: Coral reef: By Hagainativ (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Small image of fossil Pilomerops escoti: By Didier Descouens - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29796768
Slide 12, 13, 16, 20, 23, 25: Geology illustration ‘still’ reproduced from the video, ‘Limestone the Living Rock’ with kind permission from Sid Perou
([email protected])
Slide 14: Coldstones Quarry by Malcolm Street [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Limestone layers: By Mikenorton (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Slide 15: File: Mudslide in Cwm Ystwyth: Nigel Brown [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Image Credits (cont)
Slide 17: Crinoids: By DanielCD (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)],
via Wikimedia Commons
Frosterley Marble: Andrew Curtis [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
‘Marble’ pillar at Fountains Abbey – J Sharpley
Slide 18: A fossilized brachiopod: photo with kind permission of Nidderdale Museum
Slide 19: Etching depicting some of the most significant plants of the Carboniferous: By Bibliographisches Institut - Meyers Konversationslexikon. http://susi.etechnik.uni-ulm.de:8080/Meyers2/index/index.html, Public Domain, [Adapted]https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2660200
Rock with lycopod fossil: with kind permission of Nidderdale Museum
Slide 22: Aerial view of delta with outline of UK and good explanation on the ‘Valley of Stone’ website, based on the Rossendale area from:
http://www.valleyofstone.org.uk/journey/inthebeginning/rossendalerocks. Image found at: http://www.valleyofstone.org.uk/pictures/In%20the%20beginning/~jDn-nDDbD-nglQb/600px-Lena_River_Delta_-_Landsat_2000_copy.jpg. Image originally adapted from one on wikimedia commons: By none (Landsat) [Public
domain], via Wikimedia Commons (no attribution legally required)
Larger picture of delta: By NASA (Transferred from en.wikipedia) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons (no attribution legally required)
Slide 26: Bog ore: CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=188970
Flourite: Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=157087
Galena and calcite: By Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com – CC-BY-SA-3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10419916
Slide 27: Diplodocus: By Charles Robert Knight - http://www.miketaylor.org.uk/dino/history/extras.html#1, Public Domain,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2088931
Slide 28: River formation sketch: JSharpley
Slide 32: Glacier image: By Cecilia Bernal - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=39091987
Slide 34: Storm cloud: CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=276654
Cumulus cloud and blue sky: By Huhu Uet - Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10402657