Formation
The gorge carries the River Severn south towards the Bristol Channel. It was formed during the last ice age when the output from the previously north flowing river became trapped in a lake (Lake Lapworth) created when the Irish Sea ice sheet dammed the river. The level of the lake rose until it was able to flow over the hills to the south. This flow eroded a path through the hills forming the gorge and permanently diverting the Severn southwards.
Read more about this topic: Ironbridge Gorge
Famous quotes containing the word formation:
“The moral virtues, then, are produced in us neither by nature nor against nature. Nature, indeed, prepares in us the ground for their reception, but their complete formation is the product of habit.”
—Aristotle (384–322 B.C.)
“... the mass migrations now habitual in our nation are disastrous to the family and to the formation of individual character. It is impossible to create a stable society if something like a third of our people are constantly moving about. We cannot grow fine human beings, any more than we can grow fine trees, if they are constantly torn up by the roots and transplanted ...”
—Agnes E. Meyer (1887–1970)
“That for which Paul lived and died so gloriously; that for which Jesus gave himself to be crucified; the end that animated the thousand martyrs and heroes who have followed his steps, was to redeem us from a formal religion, and teach us to seek our well-being in the formation of the soul.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)