Lesson video

Hi geographers, my name's Ms. Hoggett, and I'm really excited you're here to learn some geography with me today.

I'm sure if you try your best, you're going to be absolutely fantastic.

Don't worry too much if you haven't studied this topic before.

I'm here to help you every step of the way.

The title for today's lesson is "GIS: Visualising the geology of the UK," and this sits within the unit "Rocks, weathering and soil: why is geology important?" Our learning outcome for today's lesson is that I can use GIS to visualise and analyse the UK's geology and the way this creates contrasting landscapes.

To help us through today's lesson, there are a number of keywords that are going to be really useful to us, sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic.

Sedimentary are rocks formed through the build up of sediments such as sandstone, limestone, and chalk.

Igneous are rocks formed through volcanic processes, such as basalt and granite.

And metamorphic are rocks that have changed due to heat and pressure, such as slate, gneiss, and marble.

So sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic are three key terms that are going to be really useful to us in today's lesson.

So we're going to start with our first learning cycle, visualising patterns in the UK's geology.

The physical landscape of the UK is really varied, and we can see that in the images on the screen in front of us.

But I'd like you to take a moment and have a think, why are the UK's landscapes so diverse? Pause the video and discuss this with your partner.

Did you have a think? Alex says, "Differences in geology is a major reason for the diversity of landscapes in the UK." Thank you, Alex.

That's absolutely spot on.

Now, geologists study Earth's structure by examining and mapping rocks.

But why is this so important? Again, I'd like you to pause the video and have a think, why is mapping geology important? Now, mapping geology can be really important for a number of reasons.

It's crucial for things like mining, managing water supplies, locating and managing energy supplies, and construction of buildings and infrastructure.

So geologists do a really important job in mapping geology because it provides us with lots of really important information.

Now, in the UK, we have an organisation called the British Geological Survey, and they are the national geologic research organisation who are responsible for mapping the geology in the UK, monitoring geological hazards like earthquakes and landslides, providing data and research on natural resources, such as groundwater, minerals, and fossil fuels, and advising the government, industry, and the public on geoscience-related issues.

So the British Geological Survey are really important here in the UK.

Now, they collect data, and this can be visualised on the ArcGIS Geography Visualiser so that we can analyse patterns of geology in the UK.

Now, if you weren't sure, GIS stands for geographical information systems. So we know that this is gonna provide us with lots of up-to-date information.

We're going to explore this together.

<v Instructor>In this video,</v> we're going to use the ArcGIS Geography Visualiser to visualise the geology of the UK and analyse it to see if there are any patterns to the geology of the UK.

So the first thing we need to do here is we need to add a layer of data.

So, the way we're going to do this, we're going to come to the bottom toolbar.

And where you see this plus button where it says Add layer, I'm going to click on this, and I'm going to scroll down using the scroll wheel of the mouse until I find this, and it says BGS UK Geology.

So that is data which has been collected by the British Geological Survey.

So I'm going to add that.

And you'll see when I've added that, a little 1 comes into the corner next to Map layers in that toolbar.

So I can close that now.

And what you'll see, if you look carefully at the UK, it's now coloured in.

The rest of the world isn't coloured in because this is data just for the United Kingdom.

So, I'm going to bring that to the centre, and I'm going to zoom in.

And I'm using the scroll wheel of my mouse to do that.

You can use the zoom buttons at the left-hand side of the screen, but it's easier for me to use the scroll wheel of the mouse.

And this shows lots of different colours, and this is a map showing the geology of the UK.

Now, maps are no real use without a key, so if I click on the Legend button in the toolbar, it comes up with what those colours mean.

And you'll see those colours are to do with what we call the geology period.

So what they are not, they are not telling us the rock type.

You would maybe expect it to be a map just showing where the metamorphic rock is, where the sedimentary rock is, where the igneous rock is.

But this data's not really doing that here.

It's showing us the period that that rock was formed, so it's essentially telling us its age.

So you can see this yellow here is the Neogene, and you can see it on the east coast of Norfolk here.

So, the first thing we can visualise is that the UK's geology in terms of when it was formed, when the rock was formed, is really diverse 'cause we've got lots of different colours there, and we can see that from the map.

And the other thing I can see, though, is if I actually click on some of this, so let me click on this green here, it gives us a little bit more information.

So here, we know it's the Cretaceous Period 'cause we can see that using the legend, but it also now tells us the type of the rock.

So it tells us that it's sedimentary, and actually, the specific rock, the lithology is chalk.

It tells us a little bit about how it was formed and the environment it was formed in.

So, if I want to know some information about a place in the UK in terms of its geology, I can go in this map and find out.

And that can be really useful because it might help me know whether I'm likely to have difficulties building on this rock.

You know, how solid it is.

It might tell me whether I'm likely to find water in this rock because it might tell me if it's permeable or impermeable, whether it lets water in or not.

So, that's really useful information for a geographer.

However, what this visualisation also allows us to do is analyse and see if there are any patterns there, any patterns to this geology.

And what you can see here is if we think about these different colours, we can see that they seem to be in bands running from the northeast to the southwest.

So if we look at this band in London, so this area of the Paleogene here, we can see it kind of runs in a northeast to southwest band.

And if we move further north, we can see the Cretaceous seems to do this, and then we can see the same with the Jurassic just slightly north of that.

And this continues all the way up from the southeast to the northwest.

Now, what I'm going to do is I'm gonna use the sketch tool, so I'm gonna click on Sketch at the bottom.

And I'm going to draw a transect running from, I'll come from here from the southeast all the way up to the northwest.

Let's go up to the Outer Hebrides up here.

So, I'm going all the way through the UK.

Now, one handy tool I've got here is if I come to the legend and click Interactive, what I can do is I can click on one of these, such as the Neogene, and it will only highlight those rocks which are in, which were formed, I should say, in the Neogene.

Now, one useful thing about this legend is they're actually in age-old order.

So what that means is the youngest rock is at the top of this legend and the oldest rock, right down here in the Precambrian, is at the bottom of the legend.

So, what I can now do is I can start to click through and look where the youngest rock in the country is.

So the Neogene's in the southeast, and the Paleogene is mainly in the southeast.

We've got a bit in Northern Ireland here and up in the northwest of Scotland, it's in Skye.

The Paleogene to Neogene's actually a transition between rock periods, so that'll have some rock formed in both of these periods.

I'm just gonna carry on clicking.

There's the Cretaceous, mainly in the southeast.

There's the Jurassic.

So, these are the youngest rocks we have in the UK, and they're all in the southeast corner, really, of England, or the majority, I should say, not all.

But the majority are in the southeast corner of the UK.

If I carry on clicking, I'll do this quite quick here, but you can see it starts to build up, but it's filling in from the southeast.

And I can come all the way down to here, and we can see now that the majority of the UK's filled in.

But the main exception is the northwest of Scotland, so these must be older rocks.

If I carry on clicking now, suddenly it will get filled in, right up until I get to Precambrian rocks, which are 3 billion years old, and they're right up in the northwest of Scotland.

So what we can see by using the GIS is there is a really strong pattern to the UK's geology.

The youngest rock is generally in the southeast of England, and then it gets older and older progressively until we hit the northwest of Scotland with the oldest rocks in the UK.

<v ->Well done for having a look through that video</v> and understanding the Geography Visualiser in a little bit more detail.

We're going to check your understanding now.

So which of these areas has the youngest rock? Is it down in the southeast or in the northwest? Pause the video and have a go at answering this question.

Well done if you said down in the southeast.

Now, this rock was formed in the Neogene Period and is young in geological terms, whereas in the northwest of the UK, we can see that this rock was formed in the Precambrian Period and is some of the oldest rock in Europe.

It's around 3 billion years old.

We've got another quick check for understanding now.

Which of these statements is true? Is it A, the UK's geology is very varied, B, the UK's geology is fairly uniform, C, in general, the youngest rocks are in the southeast and the oldest rocks are in the northwest, or D, in general, the youngest rocks are in the northeast and the oldest rocks are in the southwest of the UK? Pause the video and have a go at answering this question.

Well done if you said A and C, the UK's geology is really varied, and in general, the youngest rocks are in the southeast and the oldest rocks are in northwest of the UK.

Brilliant work, geographers, with those two checks for understanding.

Now, although most rock formed within a geological period is found in the same region, there can be some exceptions.

For example, most of the rock formed in the Paleogene Period is found in the southeast of England.

But some of these rocks can also be found in Northern Ireland and northwest Scotland.

When rock from a geological period is found in different regions, it's often because it was created in different ways.

So sedimentary rock formed in the Paleogene Period formed by the consolidation of clay, silt, sand, and gravel, whereas igneous rock formed in the Paleogene Period was caused by cooling magma and lava, such as the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland.

So we can see that whilst they were formed in the same period, they were formed in different ways.

So true or false? All rock formed during the Paleogene Period in the UK is sedimentary.

Pause the video and have a go at answering this question.

Some rock formed during the Paleogene Period in the UK is igneous.

Pockets of igneous rock formed during the Paleogene can be found in Northern Ireland and northwest Scotland.

So it's not true.

Not all rock formed during the Paleogene Period in the UK is sedimentary.

Fantastic work.

Now, using multiple layers of data in the ArcGIS Geography Visualiser allows us to compare patterns in the age of rocks with patterns in the types of rocks.

So we're going to explore how we can do this together.

<v Instructor>In this video,</v> we're going to use multiple layers of data to compare patterns in the age of rocks with patterns in the type of rocks.

So, as before, we're going to add a data layer to this map, but rather than clicking where it says Add layer at the bottom where this plus is, we're actually going to click where it says Open map.

And these are a series of curated maps that are already built into the Geography Visualiser.

So if I click on this and I scroll down, I'm going to find BGS Geology 625k.

And I'm going to click on that.

And when it loads, you'll see that rather than having a little 1 where it says Map layers, it actually says 4.

And that means there's four data layers that I can now use within this map.

Now, as this loads, you'll see the first, the data layer that's on there at the moment is the one that we've already seen.

It's showing the geology through the different geological periods the rock was formed.

So if I click on this, you can actually see that that's been ticked, Geology - Period.

But there's also a number of other layers.

There's Superficial Geology, there's Geology - Type, and then there's Permeability, so the amount of water the rock will allow to percolate into it.

What we want to do is we want to compare this when the rock was formed with the type of geology.

I'm going to untick this data layer, and I'm going to tick the type.

And what you can see is a map will load up, and there's going to be three colours on it, red, blue, and yellow.

And if click on the Legend, which shows us the key, it gives us a pretty simple key, really.

The yellow is sedimentary, the red is igneous, the blue is metamorphic.

So, this is really clear map, isn't it? We can see where all the different types of geology bedrock is within the country.

Now, what I would like to do is compare that with when the rock was formed.

So if I click back on Map layers and then click on the Geology - Period, I can then come down and click on the Swipe in these.

And what I can then do is I can swipe across.

So, this shows us the geology period, so when it was formed.

And if I swipe across, sorry, this is the geology type of rock.

And we can now start to make a visual comparison.

And the obvious thing I would say we can see from doing this analysis, and we are analysing now, is that the really old rock in the northwest of Scotland, so this Precambrian rock just in the highlands of Scotland there, when we swipe across, this is where the igneous and metamorphic rock is.

And then there's patches of igneous and metamorphic rock in other places.

But the majority of it is up in this northwestern part of the UK.

And in the majority of England and Wales and in the southeast, this is sedimentary rock.

And, you know, if I want to double check on that, I can click on it and it will tell me something about it, as before, or I can look at the key.

But this shows how we can use two data layers and compare the data layers to see how there is a correlation between these two variables.

<v ->Well done for giving that a good go, geographers.

</v> We're now going to practise your understanding of this learning cycle so far.

So for this practise task, I would like you to open the Geography Visualiser, and then there are three parts I'd like you to complete.

Firstly, I would like you to complete the following tasks to visualise the geology of the UK.

So you'll need to click Add layers at the bottom toolbar.

Then select BGS UK Geology.

This can also be found in the curated maps.

Then zoom into the UK.

Then click Legend in the bottom toolbar.

And then experiment with the interactive tool in the legend so that you can visualise where the rocks are at different ages in the UK.

Try selecting each geological period in turn to see the geological pattern in the UK.

Youngest rocks in the southeast, oldest in the northwest.

For part 2, I would like you to find where you live using the search tool.

Use the legend and click on the map to find out the following, the geological period of the rock where you live and the rock type.

And then lastly, I'd like you to correct Andeep's statement.

Andeep says, "The youngest rock in the UK is all in the southeast, whereas the oldest rock is all in the southwest and is mainly sedimentary." So pause the video and have a go at completing that practise task.

Well done for giving that a really good go, geographers.

Let's check your answers.

So firstly, your geological map of the UK should look like this.

For part 2, an example of the geology from where you live could be: I live in Coleraine in Northern Ireland where the rock was formed during the Paleogene and is igneous.

And lastly, for practise task 3, you needed to correct Andeep's statement.

So you should have said: The youngest rock is mainly in the southeast of the UK.

However, there are some regions of relatively young rock in other parts of the UK, such as Northern Ireland.

The oldest rock in the UK is in the northwest of Scotland and is metamorphic and igneous.

Well done for giving that a really good go.

We're now ready to move on to learning cycle number two, comparing geological landscapes across the UK.

Now, from visualising the geology of the UK, we can establish a number of key things.

The geology is varied in terms of when it was formed and the rock type, the oldest rock is in the northwest, and the youngest rock is in the southeast.

However, good geographers should always ask, "So what?" So let's check your understanding.

This geology map of the UK shows that the rock, A, has a variety of different types, B, has formed in different periods, or C, has a variety of hardness.

Pause the video and have a go at selecting the correct end to that question.

Well done if you said B, the geology map of the UK shows that the rock has formed in different periods.

Now, A and C are also technically true, but they're just not shown by the map.

So the correct end to that statement is this geology map of the UK shows that the rock has formed in different periods.

Well done, geographers.

Now, the pattern of the UK's geology leads to different physical landscapes across the UK.

Let's explore this in a little bit more detail.

<v Instructor>In this video,</v> we're going to use the ArcGIS Geography Visualiser to look how the UK's geology affects the physical landscape.

So to do this, I need to open some data layers, so I'm going to click on Open map at the bottom in the toolbar.

And I'm going to scroll down to where we see the BGS geology map.

So I'm going to click on this, and you'll see it will load up and it will first go to the data layer, which shows the geological age of the rock, so the different periods that the rock was formed in.

So, what I would like to do is I would like to investigate two places which are contrasting, so contrasting geologies.

So, ideally, I want to pick somewhere down in this, maybe in this Neogene Period down here in the sort of southeast corner of England over in sort of Norfolk or Suffolk over here.

And I want to pick somewhere with an older geology.

Doesn't have to be in the Precambrian area, right in the oldest, but somewhere in the northwest of Scotland 'cause that tends to be an older geology.

I'll probably avoid these areas of Skye because that's actually in the Paleogene, these little areas here, so I'm going to probably pick somewhere in the mainland.

I also want it to be a contrasting type of geology, so I'm going to just click on the type.

Yeah, if I pick somewhere down here, it looks like, if I look at the legend there, I'm going to be picking a sedimentary rock.

And if I pick somewhere up here, I'm going to be picking an igneous or a metamorphic rock.

So, I'm going to look at two places and see how this different geology, both the age and the type, affects the physical landscape.

Now, I can do this different ways.

I could search for specific places, or I could just maybe have an investigation on the map and zoom into a specific area.

We'll do the latter.

So I'm going to click on the period, and I've decided I'm going to pick somewhere within this Neogene area.

So, I'm going to zoom in a little bit, and doesn't really matter exactly where I pick, but I'm gonna choose somewhere within this area here.

And all I'm going to do is I'm going to click on the Sketch, and I'm gonna add a symbol just somewhere in the middle of this.

There we go.

So I've added a symbol here.

And I'm going to zoom back out.

I'm using the scroll wheel of the mouse and then holding the left button of the mouse down so I can drag it a little bit.

So I know that's in the Neogene Period.

And I think I'm going to choose somewhere here, and I'm going to choose somewhere in an older period.

This is maybe something like the Silurian Period or something, but it's an older period.

And I can look at the legend just to double check that it's old.

Yeah, we're down here in this Silurian to Devonian Period.

That's fine.

But I'm going to choose somewhere here, and I'm going to put another symbol onto the map.

And now I can zoom out, and we can see, if I just zoom right out there, that we've now got two symbols on the map.

And these are my places that I'm going to investigate, and we can see that they're very different.

When the data loads up, when the data layer comes back on, we can see they're a different age, geological ages.

And they're also, if I click on the type of geology, if I unclick that, we can see that this is sedimentary, and this is just in this sort of igneous zone here.

Okay, so these should be quite contrasting geologies, and we can now investigate the landscape.

So the first thing I can see, well, I already know 'cause I can see the key on the map, I know this is sedimentary and up there is igneous.

I can zoom in a little bit.

If I change maybe to the period there, I can see, ah, yes, this is in the Neogene Period.

If I use the key, it will help me identify that.

Remember, if I click on this area, it will give me some information.

So I can see it's sedimentary.

It's actually formed through layers of gravel, sand, silt, and clay.

So it gives me some nice information there.

But that's not really telling me about the physical landscape too much.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to just go to the Map layers, and I'm going to take the layers off the map now.

And I'm going to change the basemap.

I'm gonna change the basemap, and I'm gonna change it to World Imagery.

And now I can see what this area actually looks like.

So I want to see the physical landscape.

Okay, I can see it's a patchwork of fields, so it's farmland, and that might tell me a few things.

But this GIS is a really handy tool, and that is the 3D tool.

So if I go to the bottom here and I click on 3D, then what it's gonna allow me to do is really start to investigate the physical landscape of this area.

And I can zoom into the area, and if I go to the left-hand side, it says this, Toggle to pan or rotate in 3D.

If I click that, I'm able to rotate the map around so I can really see what this looks like.

I can zoom in, I can use the scroll wheel of the mouse still.

If I click again on this, I can pan, so I can move the map around.

But what I can see by tilting the screen and looking around in 3D is that this is a very, very, very flat landscape.

So there's no hills to be seen at all.

So we're now able to analyse the impact of this geology that, okay, this is sedimentary, it's newer rock, and we know that the physical landscape is incredibly flat.

Let's do the same now with our other place.

So I'm going to go back in 2D.

I'm going to zoom out.

You can see my, once I go back to 2D, you can see my marker, and that's just telling us, the symbol's telling us roughly where we want to start investigating, and we're going to go up to this northwestern corner.

And this northwestern corner, I've clicked in here, and I want to zoom in a little bit.

Now, again, I can go to the layers, I can double check on the layers, and I can click on the period.

We know it's older rock.

I can click on the type.

And we know this is just, if we go here, I think we're in metamorphic.

If we go slightly to the east, it's igneous.

Remember, I can click on this area and it will give me some additional information about the area.

But again, what I would like to do is I want to take this off and I want to investigate the physical landscape.

So, I can zoom right in.

I can click on 3D.

I'm going to just take these off.

And once it loads, I can then come into the area and I can zoom right in.

And the same again, I can come to the left-hand side.

I can click on this, which will allow me to rotate the map.

And what we can see is a very mountainous landscape, and we can see these kind of perfect U-shaped valleys here, which shows that it's a post-glacial landscape.

There used to be glaciers in here.

And here we can see from slightly higher, I can look around, you can really see that landscape there, these aretes, these sharp ridges, these truncated spurs, these U-shaped valleys, these mountains, and a really dramatic landscape.

So what this 3D tool's allowing us to do is really see how the geology affects the landscape and how contrasting these two places are.

Now, what I might want to do is if I click back onto 2D and I find my symbol, I might want to add a little bit of information here.

So, if I click on Sketch again and I click on the arrow, that allows me to edit.

So if click on this and then click back on that point on the symbol and then Add, it allows me to put information here.

Now, this is the Glencoe region of Scotland.

So, to find that out, you might need to move around the map and change the basemap to a Charted Territory Map so the names are on the map.

I might put on some information.

So yeah, Mountainous area, post-glacial landscape.

And I know from before that this is an igneous rock.

Certainly to the east it's igneous rock.

I could even add URLs of an image, an image from the internet if I have one of that area.

And then what it allows me to do, if I come back off this now and I close that down, when I click on this, it now comes up with that information.

So there's a picture of the area, that's an image of the area, and that's some information.

If I zoom right out then, I could do this for this other place as well.

I could put that flat landscape on an image and some information, and I could do it all around the country.

And you can see how incredible this is for collecting information.

And if I was doing some field work or a report on the geology of the UK, this would be a fantastic way of presenting my data because then I could allow people to click on these different points and show some information that I've collected about these different areas.

<v ->Let's check your understanding now.

</v> So where in the UK would you expect to find this landscape? Southeast England or northwest Scotland? Pause the video and have a think about your answer.

Well done if you said northwest Scotland.

It would be in Glencoe.

Well done, geographers.

Now, elevation profiles are an excellent way of visualising changes in the physical landscape.

Let's take a look at this in a little bit more detail.

<v Instructor>So another way</v> to visualise the impact of geology on the physical landscape is to use what we call an elevation profile.

Now, we can see on this map that I've got the type of geology as a data layer on the map.

So we've got sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic.

But what I want to do is I want to look at a transect right the way down the UK to see how the elevation changes, so the height above sea level changes.

A transect, remember, is just a line, a line of study across something, so across the UK in this case.

So, the way I'm going to do this, I'm going to come to the bottom toolbar and I'm going to click on Measure.

And then I'm going to click on Elevation profile.

And it's gonna change the screen a little bit.

I'm going to zoom out slightly on here so we can see it.

And I'm going to pick somewhere kind of in the northwest of the UK, somewhere up here.

And I'm going to run all the way through to the southeast.

And when I've done that, I can then double click.

And that then at the bottom creates what we call an elevation profile, which is essentially just showing us the height above sea level.

But importantly, what it does for us is it shows where the kind of hills and mountains are.

Now, a warning that the land is not as steep as it looks on the elevation profile.

That's just due to the scale of it makes the rise and the falls very, very steep.

But it does show us where the mountains and hills are and where it's much flatter.

And if I go along this elevation profile, you'll see an orange circle going down the elevation profile.

And what we can see is, the areas of metamorphic and igneous rock and the older rock of the country is much more mountainous.

And go through a bit more igneous rock there, we get some more hills, and again.

But when we get to the sedimentary rock, it starts to become flatter.

Now, there are exceptions just at this point.

We're going over some limestone in the Yorkshire Dales.

But generally speaking, as we move through into the southeast of the UK with this younger rock and this sedimentary rock, it certainly becomes much, much flatter than the rock in the northwest.

And you, as geographers and geologists, you can think about why that might be, why this igneous and metamorphic rock tends to bring us the mountainous landscape and why this younger sedimentary rock brings us a flatter landscape.

But elevation profiles are a fantastic way of visualising how geology affects the physical landscape.

<v ->Well done.

Let's check your understanding.

</v> So is the northwest of the UK represented by the left or right of the elevation profile? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done if you said the left-hand side of this elevation profile.

That does represent the northwest.

So let's practise what you've learned in the second learning cycle.

So again, for task B, I would like you to open the Geography Visualiser and I'd like you to complete a few different stages.

So for stage 1, I'd like you to complete the following tasks to visualise how geology influences the physical landscape.

And for part 2, follow the steps to add the labels to each of your chosen places.

Let's check what you've done so far.

So for part 1, your 3D landscape of an area of igneous rock in the northwest of Scotland may look like this.

Well done if you have something similar.

And for part 2, your labelled map may look similar to this.

Well done on completing today's lesson, geographers.

You've done absolutely superbly.

So to summarise today's lesson, we know that understanding the UK's geology is important, especially for building, mining, and managing our energy and water supplies.

The British Geological Survey is a government-funded organisation that studies the UK's geology, resources, and hazards.

GIS, geographical information systems, can be used to show the pattern of the UK's geology.

The oldest rock is mainly in the northwest, and the youngest rock is mainly in the southeast.

And the UK's varied geology leads to contrasting landscapes.

It's been absolutely wonderful completing some more geography with you today, everybody.

I hope you have a brilliant rest of your day, and I will see you soon.