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: 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.