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Climate change - Jurassic style? | |
| Warwickshire has undergone an incredible journey through time spanning 600 million years. During this time, the rocky foundation on which the county sits has slowly drifted across the face of the Earth, witnessing explosive volcanoes, steamy tropical swamps, arid deserts, subtropical seas, and frozen wastes. The evidence for this journey is preserved amongst the rocks that make up the county. At the dawn of the Jurassic Period, 200 million years ago, Warwickshire had drifted to a position not far north of the equator, and was covered by a warm, shallow, muddy sea. Today, the sea-floor mud is preserved as layers of clay and limestone, termed ‘Blue Lias’, that have been quarried for the Rugby Cement industry in the south and east of the county. | |
 Blue Lias rock strata at Spiers Farm quarry, Southam.  A natural record of the Jurassic world at Spiers Farm quarry, Southam. Darker layers are clay; the paler layers are limestone. | |
| Long-term changes in our climate, spanning thousands of years, can be caused by periodic wobbles of the Earth’s axis and changes in the shape of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun. Geologists have argued that the natural bands of clay and limestone that make up the Blue Lias are due to climate changes of this type, 200 million years ago. It seems likely that the Blue Lias clay layers represent periods of thousands of years, when swollen rivers that resulted from a wetter climate flushed billions of tons of mud into the Jurassic sea. The limestone beds might indicate drier periods, resulting in a clearer, sunlit sea. | |
| The geology gallery at Market Hall includes a display of local rocks and fossils. For more information contact the Keeper of Geology: Telephone 01926 412500 Email museum@warwickshire.gov.uk Geology Collection Homepage |
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