The northeast-southwest trending, Caledonide Mountains of Scotland and Scandinavia are separated by the North Sea formed by some Mesozoic rifting and incipient continental drift of Britain towards the west. Thus in broad terms, Scotland and Wales are related to Scandinavia, and Cornubia has some relationship to Brittany, which of course in geological terms includes the Channels Islands. In contrast the hard rock upland areas, much of southern and southeastern England consist of low ground with softer Jurassic, Cretaceous and Tertiary strata. This part of the country is similar to the Paris Basin and its surrounds. The geology of the sea areas around Britain are not shown here, but they largely consist of Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous and Tertiary strata.
Much oil occurs in traps in the North Sea.
This old geological map of Great Britain shows in more detail the geology of the whole island, and also the relationship of the south coast sections to this. East Anglia has very young, Pliocene strata. Although this map is old, there has been very little change in the geological mapping on this scale, since it was drawn. The Isle of Man is now largely shown as Ordovician rather than Cambrian. There are some name changes.