Some of Britain’s leading geologists have been venturing into the hills of the Brecon Beacons National Park in search of a solution to one of the greatest threats to our planet.
The hills, less than an hour’s drive from Cardiff, have become a vast outdoor laboratory where the history of climate change can be traced back hundreds of millions of years.
Renowned geologists gathered for the first ever Fforest Fawr Research Seminar at the Forestry Commission Wales visitor centre in Garwnant, at the southern gateway to the National Park.
It was an appropriate venue as the role woodlands can play in tackling climate change features strongly in the Welsh Assembly Government’s Woodlands for Wales document.
Addressing climate change is one of the key priorities for the Assembly Government, and geologists believe some of the answers lie in the Brecon Beacons and surrounding hills.
The area was designated as the Fforest Fawr Geopark in 2005 – the first one in Wales – because of its geological importance and is one of the most studied places in the world.
Fforest Fawr Geopark Development Officer Alan Bowring said, “Many of the researchers who come to the Fforest Fawr Geopark today – and indeed to the wider Brecon Beacons National Park – come because of its special place on the Earth’s surface, a place that has the potential to yield vital knowledge about one of the most important questions of our time: climate change.
“Our local hills – Fforest Fawr, the Black Mountain and the Brecon Beacons – just happened to be on the very edge of the ice sheets of the last Ice Age and, as such, the glaciers that they nurtured were extremely sensitive to changes in the climate.
“Piecing together the glacial history of these hills gives us a handle not only on climate change thousands of years ago but, crucially, on how present day and future climate change may impact on us – not just on Wales, but on north-west Europe as a whole.
“This contributes significantly to the major international effort to better understand a changing global environment.”
When it was established, the Fforest Fawr Geopark became the 24th member of the European Geoparks Network and also became a member of the UNESCO-assisted Global Geoparks Network, underlining the European significance of its geological heritage.
The seminar was convened by Dr Adrian Humpage of the British Geological Survey, which recently mapped rocks in the Llandovery area and Fforest Fawr Geopark ranging in age from 444 to 416 million years ago.
Dr Simon Carr, who helped to organise the event, said, “This investigation revealed the influence of climate change in deep geological time.
“The significance of the geopark as a laboratory for investigating the history of climate change during the recent past and present was emphasised, reinforcing the need to consider the landscape of all geoparks in the context of continuing regional and global climate change.”
The popular FC Wales centre just five miles from Merthyr Tydfil was a fitting location as Garwnant has its own interesting geological story to tell, being the convergence point of three rock types – a very rare occurrence and geologically very important.
The meeting of Carboniferous Limestone, Old Red Sandstone and Twrch Sandstone is signified by the three-stone feature in the courtyard at the recently-refurbished Visitor Centre.
Alan Bowring added, “The holding of this first seminar heralds what we hope will become an annual event, highlighting the work that scientists from a variety of disciplines are doing in and around Fforest Fawr Geopark.
“Their modern day research reaffirms the value that this area has had since the earliest days of geological investigation of our planet back in the early nineteenth century.”
