Drifting Apart project

The Causeway Coast and Glens Heritage Trust (CCGHT) met on Monday with partners from Canada, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Norway and Russia to launch an exciting three year, €1.6m Geology Project entitled Drifting Apart.

By The Newsroom

Published 10th Jun 2015, 08:01 BST

Led by CCGHT and part-funded through the European Regional Development Fund’s Northern Peripheries and Arctic Region Programme, Drifting Apart aims to reconnect the geological heritage of six partner countries which are literally drifting apart as the European and North American Plates move apart at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge by around one inch per year.

Whilst one inch might not sound like an awful lot, over millions of years the areas now defined by modern political boundaries were once a single landmass. In Northern Ireland the Giant’s Causeway and Causeway Coast World Heritage Site provides evidence of when the partner countries began to split apart over 60 million years ago. The public will shortly be able to keep up-to-date with progress by visiting www.driftingapart.eu where an interactive map will show project location.