Paleoenvironments

By studying rocks and the fossils found within them, geologists are able to describe what life would have been like in the environments where these rocks were created. Artists have taken this information and created pictures so we can see imagine what the Geopark was like millions of years ago!

These paleoenvironment images were commissioned as part of the GéodéO series.

GéodéO is part of the Geodiversity Action Plan for the Hauts-de-France region, jointly led by the Conservatoire d’Espaces Naturels des Hauts-de-France and DREAL Hauts-de-France. This collection, designed to evolve and grow over time, is aimed at both geology enthusiasts and anyone curious to understand how our landscapes were formed and to learn more about our history.

Explore the geological heritage of the Geopark through the pictures and descriptions below!

In the Middle Devonian, 380 million years ago (yes, we’re dealing with almost unimaginable timescales here!), our region was located under the Tropic of Capricorn, beneath a sea teeming with life and marked by flourishing reefs.

In the Late Carboniferous, 310 million years ago, a lush forest inhabited by giant insects and bordered by a mountain range comparable to the Himalayas covered our land!

In the Early Triassic, 250 million years ago, the Hercynian mountain range, formed during the Carboniferous, was gradually eroded by rivers meandering through forests of Voltzia.

In the Late Cretaceous, 92 million years ago, the sea submerged the region, and microscopic algae accumulated over centuries to form hundreds of meters of chalk.

 

In the Quaternary, 2.5 million years ago, the climate oscillated between cold (glacial) and warmer (interglacial) periods. During these transitions, the landscapes alternated between steppes and forests, and the fauna ranged from woolly mammoths to hippos!