Hartlepool Submerged Forest
Encyclopedia
Hartlepool Submerged Forest is a 19.7 hectare
geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Cleveland, England
notified in 1988. The site is located to the south of Hartlepool
Docks.
A forest stretching for several miles along the Hartlepool coast is thought to have originated around 7,000 years ago. It became submerged as sea levels rose over the next five millennia, but remains preserved to this day as a peaty soil, intermittently revealed on the foreshore by the ebb and flow of the tide. Animal bones, including those of deer
and wild boar
have been discovered at the site, as well as flint tools and other implements pointing to human activity in the area thousands of years ago. These have been analysed by scientists hoping to understand the environment that existed in the area before the forest was submerged.
The site is also considered to be of significant importance in understanding sea level and environmental changes since the last Ice Age
, and is identified as such in the Geological Conservation Review
.
Hectare
The hectare is a metric unit of area defined as 10,000 square metres , and primarily used in the measurement of land. In 1795, when the metric system was introduced, the are was defined as being 100 square metres and the hectare was thus 100 ares or 1/100 km2...
geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Cleveland, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
notified in 1988. The site is located to the south of Hartlepool
Hartlepool
Hartlepool is a town and port in North East England.It was founded in the 7th century AD, around the Northumbrian monastery of Hartlepool Abbey. The village grew during the Middle Ages and developed a harbour which served as the official port of the County Palatine of Durham. A railway link from...
Docks.
A forest stretching for several miles along the Hartlepool coast is thought to have originated around 7,000 years ago. It became submerged as sea levels rose over the next five millennia, but remains preserved to this day as a peaty soil, intermittently revealed on the foreshore by the ebb and flow of the tide. Animal bones, including those of deer
Deer
Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...
and wild boar
Boar
Wild boar, also wild pig, is a species of the pig genus Sus, part of the biological family Suidae. The species includes many subspecies. It is the wild ancestor of the domestic pig, an animal with which it freely hybridises...
have been discovered at the site, as well as flint tools and other implements pointing to human activity in the area thousands of years ago. These have been analysed by scientists hoping to understand the environment that existed in the area before the forest was submerged.
The site is also considered to be of significant importance in understanding sea level and environmental changes since the last Ice Age
Ice age
An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...
, and is identified as such in the Geological Conservation Review
Geological Conservation Review
The Geological Conservation Review is produced by the UK's Joint Nature Conservation Committee and is designed to identify those sites of national and international importance needed to show all the key scientific elements of the geological and geomorphological features of Britain...
.
Source
- English Nature citation sheet for the site (accessed 5 August 2006)