Geology of the Broads

rdf:langString Geology of the Broads

rdf:langString This article describes the geology of the Broads, an area of East Anglia in eastern England characterised by rivers, marshes and shallow lakes (‘broads’). The Broads is designated as a protected landscape with ‘status equivalent to a national park’. The area is underlain by a suite of generally flat-lying sedimentary rock types of which the most recent are those of Neogene age. Almost entirely covered by more recent superficial deposits, they are exposed at the surface to a very limited extent or else are known from boreholes or quarry workings. Overlying these across much the larger part of the 'national park' are silts and clays of Flandrian age, which together with peat deposits form the broad flats of the Waveney, Yare, Bure and Thurne valleys. Extraction of the peat in historic times, and subsequent flooding of the workings, has resulted in the pattern of broads for which the area is widely known.