Timeline

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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