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Scientists have found evidence that a land link existing between Europe and Britain 450,000 years ago was damaged and later destroyed:
The UK has now started the formal process of leaving the EU, but scientists say they have evidence of a much earlier "Brexit". They have worked out how a thin strip of land that once connected ancient Britain to Europe was destroyed. The researchers believe a large lake overflowed 450,000 years ago, damaging the land link, then a later flood fully opened the Dover Strait. The scars of these events can be found on the seabed of the English Channel.
The study is published in the journal Nature Communications [open, DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15101] [DX]. Professor Sanjeev Gupta, who led the study, from Imperial College London, said: "This was really one of the defining events for north west Europe - and certainly the defining event in Britain's history. "This chance geological event, if it hadn't happened, would have meant Britain was always connected to the continent."
The shortest distance across the Dover Strait is currently 33.3 kilometers (20.7 miles).
2007 letter to Nature from some of the same authors: Catastrophic flooding origin of shelf valley systems in the English Channel (DOI: 10.1038/nature06018) (DX)
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday April 05 2017, @06:02PM (3 children)
Those evil terroristas that damaged and destroyed our land link to Europe. Now we must demand retroactive payment for that channel tunnel to repair the inconvenience. All these terrorizts.. where's the crusade when you need it!? :P
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday April 05 2017, @07:25PM (2 children)
> damaged and destroyed our land link to Europe. Now we must demand retroactive payment for that channel tunnel to repair the inconvenience
Definitely not written by a true Brit.
The fact that the UK is detached from the continent is an critical element of the British psyche. Not being a "continental" is the rallying cry and pride of the People.
No wonder they got kicked out of Western France after a few hundred short years. You're not truly one if you dilute your bloodline through too many generations off an island.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 06 2017, @03:03AM
As we Britishers say, vive la petite différence!
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday April 07 2017, @11:19PM
I read something about German people being "too authoritarian" in the mind of Brits and possible French people when shaping the foundation for the USA. So if the land connection had remained it could have shaped the European continent in a more authoritarian way.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday April 05 2017, @06:08PM (6 children)
Oh jeez, really? Who writes this shit?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 05 2017, @06:26PM
As usual, journalists. I didn't find mention of "Brexit" in the paper.
So in this case, the culprit is Rebecca Morelle, Science Correspondent, BBC News. Sanjeev Gupta, Jenny S. Collier, et al are off the hook.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 05 2017, @06:26PM
Apparently Rebecca Morelle does.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday April 05 2017, @06:31PM
Brexit was destined!
UKEngland will always move away from Europe![SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday April 05 2017, @06:31PM (2 children)
People that have an agenda and need to bend science to make it stick. Geological changes tend to happen regardless of what the people living ontop thinks about it.
(Score: 2) by MrNemesis on Wednesday April 05 2017, @07:04PM (1 child)
It's not even news - note the paper is from 2007. Britain (the island[s], cos it's not a country) was connected to mainland europe by land during the last ice age, and there's been varying degrees of hypotheses, theories and (eventually) proof of such for over 100 years. Rising sea levels combined with large erosional flood events as the glaciers melted are what's formed the geography of the current north sea and english channel. There have been many catastrophic flooding events here over the millennia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doggerland [wikipedia.org]
"To paraphrase Nietzsche, I have looked into the abyss and been sick in it."
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Thursday April 06 2017, @04:24AM
The summary mentions a "2007 letter to Nature from some of the same authors" but I think the paper in Nature Communications may be new. It's not opening for me now and when it did I didn't note its date.
(Score: 2) by BenJeremy on Wednesday April 05 2017, @06:32PM
We all know the world, the FLAT world, is only 6,000 years old. Attempts by liberal "scientists" to subvert this knowledge are just SAD.
(Score: 2) by Nuke on Wednesday April 05 2017, @06:59PM
This is hardly a new discovery, it has long been known as a fact. Back before the breach that formed the Straits of Dover, the Thames, Seine, Rhine, and the other European rivers that now flow into the North Sea, all joined into a massive single river flowing north towards Scandanavia. This was dammed by the Ice Age ice sheet and the lake that then formed broke through the chalk ridge to the south into what is now the English Channel. The "White Cliffs of Dover" are evidence of that break. Wikipedia has it all [wikipedia.org], and the article there was not written yesterday.
I guess that this guy has found some additional piece of evidence, but it is not a big story.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday April 05 2017, @07:00PM
"This chance geological event, if it hadn't happened, would have meant Britain was always connected to the continent."
Just stack a couple pikemen on it ;)
#everythingilearnedfromcivilization
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday April 05 2017, @08:44PM (1 child)
Probably during May. :-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 05 2017, @09:12PM
No, probably during the Cameroon. Heh heh, wait... what the FUCK are you talking about, cunt!