About the Cross-Channel Geopark

Around 450,000 years ago, during one of the coldest periods in Earth’s history, the Cross-Channel Geopark was frozen and covered in snow. A massive lake had formed in the southern North Sea and a ridge of chalk hills connected Britain and France. The hills were a land bridge, allowing early humans and animals to move freely back and forth.

As the planet warmed up and the ice melted, the lake got full and a catastrophic megaflood burst through the land bridge, carving out the Channel and separating our two nations. The force was so powerful, plunge pools more than 80 metres deep formed in the chalk rock that is now the seabed!

This extraordinary event reshaped the landscape, leaving behind awe-inspiring white cliffs and valleys that tell the story of our geological heritage. Explore the Cross-Channel Geopark and discover how more than 400 million years of shared history unites us across the Channel today.

Discover our Geosites

Geosites are sites of geological interest across the aspiring UNESCO Cross-Channel Global Geopark, where you can visit and interact with our geological heritage. These unique places show the incredible variety found in our landscape, based on their geological, educational, or cultural importance.

Together the Geosites of the Cross-Channel Geopark tell the story of the whole territory, across Kent and and northern France, and are destinations you can visit to learn all about the aspiring UNESCO Cross-Channel Global Geopark.

GEOPARK Boundary Map 2024 2 Scaled Aspect Ratio 380 260Download the Map

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Discover our Geosites

Pano Bench Nose 2020 Resize Aspect Ratio to 1152 480 ScaleCap Blanc NezNatural tagsCoastal tagsOpen Spaces tagsOne half of the pair of iconic white cliff faces that face each other across the Channel, these cliffs were once part of the same ridge of chalk hills as their counterpart in Dover. Escalles
4400484997 4281d10346 K 2 Aspect Ratio 1152 480Chalk MonumentsGeological tagsOpen Spaces tagsWalking & Cycling tagsOn the chalk hills of the Kent Downs there are four ‘hill figures’ carved into the slopes of the hills themselves.
8147375917 9454311ca4 K 1 Aspect Ratio 1152 480Shorne Woods Country ParkNatural tagsFamily Friendly tagsOpen Spaces tagsShorne Woods is a 300 acre country park between Gravesend and Strood with an interesting geological heritage. Gravesend, Shorne
52665015580 Daba3554da K 1 Aspect Ratio 1152 480Blue Bell Hill and Culand PitsIndustrial tagsFamily Friendly tagsOpen Spaces tagsBlue Bell Hill picnic site is a stunning viewpoint that looks out across the Medway valley and to the Weald. Maidstone

Our Geological Story

The 'Big Bang'

13.8 billion years ago

Earth formed

4.6 billion years ago

 

540 million years ago

The Cambrian explosion of life: animals evolved and diversified as never before on Earth.

Devonian

419 million years ago

390 million years ago the oldest rocks you can see in the Geopark date back to the Middle Devonian. They are still quarried today in the Marquise basin in France.

Carboniferous

359 million years ago

Around 325 million years ago the Geopark was near the equator. The swamp forests from that period are preserved as coal, which was formerly mined in the Marquise basin in France as well as in East Kent and the Nord-Pas-de-Calais.

Permian

299 million years ago

Triassic

252 million years ago

210 million years ago the Geopark was in the centre of the Pangaea supercontinent, and dinosaurs roamed the land!

Jurassic

201 million years ago

150 million years ago the Geopark was submerged under the sea, the sands, clays, limestones, and sandstones that compose the Boulonnais region in France were deposited.

Cretaceous

145 million years ago

Over about 40 million years from 100-60 million years ago, Chalk formed at the bottom of a warm, shallow sea where the Geopark is located today. This was the first step towards the formation of our distinctive chalk landscape, which defines much of the Geopark.

Palaeogene

66 million years ago

Tectonic activity around 40 million years ago uplifted the territory of the Geopark by dozens of metres, creating an extensive chalk landscape that connected France and Great Britain.

Neogene

23 million years ago

Quaternary

2.6 million years ago

450,000 years ago, a megaflood destroyed the chalk ridge connecting Calais and Dover, creating the iconic white cliffs of the Geopark we see today

United by the Channel

The Cross-Channel Geopark is a cooperation between The Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (England) and the Caps et Marais d’Opale Regional Nature Park (France) in celebration of our common geology and heritage.

Visit and explore Kent DownsSt Margarets Bay, Cross-Channel Geopark_John MillerSt Margarets Bay Cross Channel Geopark John Miller Aspect Ratio 1200 310
Visit and explore Parc OpaleLe Cap Blan NezCap Blanc Nez PNRCMO Credit O.Leclercq Resized Scaled 1 Aspect Ratio 1200 310