Yorkshire's geology is some of the most spectacular in the British Isles.
An up-to-date illustrated account of the 540 million years of its known geological past has long been overdue. The rich variety of its landscapes – gritstone moorland, limestone Dales, the Chalk uplands of the Wolds, the vales of Mowbray and York, wild coastline – owe their existence to natural forces of astonishing power.
Volcanic eruption played a role in Yorkshire's creation. The county has been part of drifting continents, submerged beneath deep oceans and warm shallow seas, an arid desert, coal-forming swamp, and frozen waste. The fossil record ranges from sharks to tropical plants, dinosaurs to rhinoceros. Paul Ensom is a well known geologist with a rare ability to breathe new life into the past.