Topic 10: Tropical Ireland

Hard to believe, maybe, but Ireland used to be tropical - and the evidence from the rocks is all around us here in Limerick. We’ll talk about that, and the formation of Europe, and why that’s been particularly good for Ireland’s tourism industry.

Lecture

Lecture slides: L10 Tropical

Reading

I suggest reading Chapter 19 of Lutgens and Tarbuck 2015 Essentials of Geology . This is the chapter on the evolution of the Earth through time; it will give a more global overview of what we’re covering in this section of the module, and it also gives a nice overview of life through time which will help to understand the fossil content from this week’s lecture.

I would also suggest reading Chapters 8-11 of Understanding Earth Processes Rocks and the Geology of Ireland by Sleeman et al. These are the chapters on Ireland in the Carboniferous, Permian, and Triassic Periods, and so will more directly expand on what we cover in the lecture.

Additional

If you would like to explore the topic of radon a little more, I recommend this paper by Elío et al. (2017), describing the research which produced the new radon risk map for Ireland. The new map (used in the lecture) accounts for rock type, rock porosity and permeability, unconsolidated sediments, and soils - i.e. considering not just the source of the radon, but how it can get to the surface, especially via water.