The History of how the English lakes in Cumbria were formed

The formation of the lakes

• 500 million years ago the area was a muddy sediment under a sea.
• 450 million years ago volcanic eruptions buried it under a two mile thick blanket of ash
• it has been a sea, mountain range, swamp and desert as the earth's climate changes
• the landscape has taken its present character over the last million years
• the rocks have buckled under pressure from below
• wind, ice, rain and frost have eroded the surface
• Ice Age glaciers gouged out the valleys and created the lakes
• now river borne sediment is filling the lakes, in 50,000 years there may be no lakes left

	Skiddaw Slate smooth rounded hills
	Volcanic Rocks sharp crags and peaks
	Silurian Rocks a gentle rolling landscape

All these elements have been acted on by nature and latterly by man, to create what is the English Lakes today

	eroded scree
	man made reservoirs
	glacier valley
	ice age corrie

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