The current territory of the Maestrazgo UNESCO Global Geopark has provided fossils that pioneered dinosaur research in Spain. The first Spanish dinosaur, Aragosaurus ischiaticus (published in 1987), five other new genera of dinosaurs and six species were described from fossils found at Geopark sites. These are the sauropod Galveosaurus herreroi (Galvesaurus herreroi) in 2005, the […]
Geoparks in China have been a great success story, with 284 national geoparks and 41 of them accorded UNESCO international status, the highest number for any country in the world. We track the progress of one of the geoparks, Luoping Biota National Geopark in Yunnan Province, from initial plans after its discovery as a key […]
Unconsolidated diamicton deposits of Quaternary age cover much of the lowland areas of the British Isles. These are often poorly exposed and as a result their influence on development and importance as palaeontological archives are often under appreciated. Maintaining exposures in such strata is often challenging and their incorporation into the built environment is limited […]
Geomorphological principles show that the earth’s surface is not fixed and changes over time. The physical elements of the earth’s surface, from microscopic components such as minerals to macroscopic phenomena such as landforms, are all part of geodiversity. Landform equilibrium and resilience are related to the resistance to the erosion pattern. In other words, morphogenic […]
Limestone pavements, formed in part as a result of glacial scour, are highly valued parts of the landscape of northern Britain. They have been quarried extensively for use in both gardening and for landscaping in urban recreational spaces. Legal protection was provided in the 1980s and extraction has since been halted in England. This has […]
In this Special Issue, we present 11 of the 15 geoparks that show key aspects of the past and current volcanic development of Europe. The sites include currently active locations along the mid-Atlantic ridge, from the Canary Islands and the Azores in the south to Iceland in the north. Other sites in continental Europe, from […]
Cabo de Gata-Níjar geopark is an exceptional volcanic zone in the western Mediterranean because of the submarine effusive volcanism and the large volume of subaerial pyroclastic deposits; volcanism developed between land and sea. Its extensive outcrops attract students and researchers from all over Europe to have a better and more precise understanding of the processes […]
Four small scoria cones in the western outskirts of Al Madinah City, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, form a distinct young volcanic landmark. These volcanoes, despite their very small size, provide one of the most fundamental sources of information about the early eruption mechanism of rising mafic magma in the context of an active volcanic […]