Geomon
Encyclopedia
GeoMôn or Anglesey
Anglesey
Anglesey , also known by its Welsh name Ynys Môn , is an island and, as Isle of Anglesey, a county off the north west coast of Wales...

 Geopark, was admitted to the European Geoparks Network
European Geoparks Network
The European Geoparks Network, often known as the EGN, is a trans-national partnership of Geoparks across Europe formed in 2000 to provide mutual support to established and prospective Geoparks across the continent...

 and to the UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

-assisted Global Network of National Geoparks in May 2009. It is the second Geopark to be designated in Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 and the seventh within the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

.

Originally geoconservation on Anglesey was administered by the Gwynedd
Gwynedd
Gwynedd is a county in north-west Wales, named after the old Kingdom of Gwynedd. Although the second biggest in terms of geographical area, it is also one of the most sparsely populated...

 and Mon RIGS group, but a decision was taken to apply for Geopark membership.
GeoMôn is a limited company, registered at Companies House
Companies House
Companies House is the United Kingdom Registrar of Companies and is an Executive Agency of the United Kingdom Government Department for Business, Innovation and Skills . All forms of companies are incorporated and registered with Companies House and file specific details as required by the...

, which administers the Geopark and currently has 4 directors, two geologists and two Isle of Anglesey County Council officials. The Geopark is based around the extraordinary diversity of its geology which encompasses solid rocks from the Precambrian
Precambrian
The Precambrian is the name which describes the large span of time in Earth's history before the current Phanerozoic Eon, and is a Supereon divided into several eons of the geologic time scale...

 to the Neogene
Neogene
The Neogene is a geologic period and system in the International Commission on Stratigraphy Geologic Timescale starting 23.03 ± 0.05 million years ago and ending 2.588 million years ago...

 with some Miocene
Miocene
The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene...

 sediments and extensive Pleistocene
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....

 glaciation features from the Quaternary
Quaternary
The Quaternary Period is the most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the ICS. It follows the Neogene Period, spanning 2.588 ± 0.005 million years ago to the present...

 period.

One outstanding feature of the Geopark is its commitment to publicising the importance of soil diversity in the landscape, biodiversity and land use. Dr John Conway, Principal lecturer at the Royal Agricultural College
Royal Agricultural College
The Royal Agricultural College is a higher education institution located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, UK. Established in 1845, it was the first agricultural college in the English speaking world...

, has written a field guide and also presented papers on this theme at the European Geopark Networks conference in Scotland in 2007 and at the UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...

Global Geopark conference in Germany in 2008.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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