More than 454 million years ago, a huge volcanic system erupted beneath what is now eastern England. Scientists have now found evidence of the long-extinct volcano buried beneath The Wash, offering new clues about the region’s ancient past. Researchers from the British Geological Survey and the University of Oslo studied tiny crystals preserved in rock samples from boreholes in Norfolk and Lincolnshire. The crystals helped them date the eruption to about 454.4 million years ago. The findings also suggest that this ancient volcano may have produced the Kinnekulle ash layer, which is found across parts of Norway, Sweden, the Baltic region, Belarus and Poland. At the time, the land that would become England was separated from Scandinavia by the Tornquist Sea. Though the volcano disappeared millions of years ago, evidence of the eruption remained buried beneath the landscape.
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