BEN VOLCANO !
That much of the landscape of Britain’s highest mountain was carved by the last Ice-Age is well known and a recent, extensive, survey of the mountain has confirmed this but the team of specialists involved have shed new light on the impressive north face. The glacial scenery of the summit and glens is little more than ten-thousand years old but the north face was born in volcanic chaos some 420 million years before. It appears that a collapsed volcanic caldera is responsible for the sheer faces and massive buttresses on the Ben’s northern face.
That much of the landscape of Britain’s highest mountain was carved by the last Ice-Age is well known and a recent, extensive, survey of the mountain has confirmed this but the team of specialists involved have shed new light on the impressive north face. The glacial scenery of the summit and glens is little more than ten-thousand years old but the north face was born in volcanic chaos some 420 million years before. It appears that a collapsed volcanic caldera is responsible for the sheer faces and massive buttresses on the Ben’s northern face.