JURASSIC COAST-WORLD HERITAGE

The Jurassic coast is a world heritage starting in Devon and ending in Dorset after 95 miles.

The Jurassic Coast is from geological time Periods called the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous.

Those three time periods of Earth history collectively make up the Mesozoic Era, from around 250 to 65 million years ago. Rocks that are an almost complete record of that entire time are spread out along the Jurassic Coast.

SO, WHAT HAPPENED?

TRIASSIC: 252 million years ago, this area of the Earth’s crust was stretching and sinking. As it sank, layers of sediment piled one on top of the other to form rocks. First in baking deserts during the Triassic Period (252 – 201 million years ago) …

JURASSIC: …and then in the Jurassic period (201 – 145 million years ago), sea level rose and changed the desert into a tropical sea...

EARLY CRETACEOUS: ...As the Jurassic sea levels fell, a forest grew, then died and was buried beneath the sediments of lagoons, swamps and rivers. This was the start of the Cretaceous period (145 – 66 million years ago).

During this Period, earth movements tilted the rock layers to the east. The rocks pushed up in the west were worn away...

LATE CRETACEOUS: ...Soon, the sea rose again and during the rest of the Cretaceous period, sandstone and Chalk were laid down across the region, burying the tilted layers of older rock.

WHAT'S IT LIKE NOW?

Since that time, erosion (when something is worn away) has carved this rock into the landscape we see today. Now the Jurassic Coast is a public beach in Dorset where you can swim and find fossils (if your lucky) in the clay.

I would recommend visiting it.

Evie Roe, 6f