Volcanoes and the Making of Scotland

About this book

Scotland's mountains and glens retain the secrets of the long and frequently violent geological history that has gone into their making. Volcanoes have played a major role in the creation of Scotland and while the youngest, a mere sixty million years old, were responsible for much of the scenic splendour of the Inner Hebrides, the rocks composing many of the famous Scottish landforms as, for example, those of Glencoe and the Edinburgh district are also the direct result of volcanism.

Volcanoes and the Making of Scotland explores back in time from the most recent examples to volcanoes of the obscure Precambrian times which left their signature in the ancient rocks of the far north-west. Geographically Volcanoes and the Making of Scotland ranges across all of Scotland from Shetland to the Borders. Reflecting current research into Scotland's geology, the author also speculates as to the climate, geography and ecology of the long-gone landscapes in which the volcanoes of differing ages were created and destroyed.

This revised edition has been comprehensively rewritten and is presented with and updated selection of maps, sketches, cross-sections and photographs. It relates what can currently be seen in the worn-down remains of Scotland's old volcanoes to active analogues around the world. Volcanoes and the Making of Scotland vividly brings life and meaning to what the layman would otherwise regard as cold and incomprehensible rocks.

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Biography

Brian Upton is an emeritus professor of petrology in the University of Edinburgh who has worked and travelled widely in Scotland over the past sixty years.