Geology and landscape
The character of the beautiful North Pennine landscape has its foundation in the underlying rocks, and is the result of millions of years of Earth history.
Millions of years in the making
The North Pennine landscape has been nearly 500 million years in the making and its rocks, minerals and fossils tell a remarkable story. The rocks which underlie most of the area were formed in ancient tropical seas, river deltas and rainforests. The dramatic Whin Sill was once molten, and the area's mineral deposits crystallized from hot fluids deep underground. The rocks along the North Pennine escarpment tell of a long-vanished ocean, volcanoes and deserts. In the more recent geological past, vast ice sheets smoothed and sculpted the landscape. And in the last few thousand years - just the blink of an eye in geological terms - North Pennine people have further shaped the landscape with settlements, mines and quarries.
Rocky weekends
New for 2012 the North Pennines AONB Partnership is running a series of three weekends of 'rocky' activities to help visitors unlock the geological and landscape secrets of the North Pennines.
Global significance
As well as being an AONB the North Pennines is also Britain's first European Geopark and a founding member of the Global Geoparks Network. Geoparks are places with outstanding geology where special effort is made to look after and celebrate geological heritage.
Contact Dr Elizabeth Pickett, Geodiversity Officer at the North Pennines AONB Partnership, for more information. Tel: 01388 528801 (elizabeth@northpenninesaonb.org.uk).