The moment Britain became an island

BBC News Magazine ^ | Monday, February 14, 2011 | Megan Lane

[SunkenCiv]

The coastline and landscape of what would become modern Britain began to emerge at the end of the last Ice Age around 10,000 years ago.

What had been a cold, dry tundra on the north-western edge of Europe grew warmer and wetter as the ice caps melted. The Irish Sea, North Sea and the Channel were all dry land, albeit land slowly being submerged as sea levels rose.

But it wasn't until 6,100BC that Britain broke free of mainland Europe for good, during the Mesolithic period -- the Middle Stone Age.

It is thought a landslide in Norway triggered one of the biggest tsunamis ever recorded on Earth, when a landlocked sea in the Norwegian trench burst its banks.

[SunkenCiv]

"In Bray, on the east coast of Ireland, there are fossilised trees on the beach, lying where they first grew 8,000 years ago. There are drowned forests off Dorset, Wales and the Isle of Wight. That's because back then, the Irish Sea, North Sea and the Channel were all dry land. When the great melt came, and the seas gradually rose by 300 feet, we were cut off from mainland Europe for good."

[freedumb2003]

Blame AGW — Al Gore was right even back then!

[SunkenCiv]

These kinds of things happen from time to time, usually on a smaller scale:

• Clare Places: Islands: Mutton Island or Enniskerry (9th century catastrophe in Ireland)

submerged forests can happen other ways too:

• Exploration of underwater forest [Loch Tay]

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

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[americanophile]

...splendid isolation.

[blam]

Stephen Oppenheimer had a de-linking moment for the Scots and the Finns similar to this in his book, "Origins Of The British".
He says that the people on either side are so closely related genetically that they must have been one big family before the split

[Rebelbase]

Had Hitler started 8000 years earlier he would have conquered all of Europe.

[bigheadfred]

Had Hitler started 8000 years earlier he would have conquered all of Europe.

If Hitler would have started five years later he would have conquered the WORLD.

[bigheadfred]

Oh. I thought this was going to be about multiculturalism.

But hey! Maybe Norway could come up with another mega tsunami generating event that would wipe the slate clean.

[JoeProBono]

[Fred Nerks]

GEOLOGY OF THE WESSEX COAST OF SOUTHERN ENGLAND.

[fhayek]

I’ll bet that the Druids had a hand in this, the bastards.

[kbennkc]

Still randy.

[grey_whiskers]

Barbara Bach -- wasn't she in The Spy Who Loved Me ?

Cheers!

[Bernard Marx]

I’ve always thought that if there’s any truth to the legend of Atlantis it’s probably related to this event. At least the location fits Plato’s description and there’s clear evidence the now-inundated land was populated. There had been free movement across what is now the English Channel for thousands of years prior to the Big Melt.

[kbennkc]

Barbara Bach -- wasn't she in The Spy Who Loved Me ?

Yep. I think her husband, shown with her above, was a musician.

[wideminded]

Doggerland

[GSP.FAN]

Bray brings back memories of growing up,had so much fun in the arcades.

[ANGGAPO]

“Had Hitler started 8000 years earlier he would have conquered all of Europe.
If Hitler would have started five years later he would have conquered the WORLD.”
If the Unites States hadn’t gotten involved Hitler would have done the job in about two years.