Geology of the Netherlands
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The geology of the Netherlands is very much influenced by its very low position. Large parts of the country are below sea level and have in the past been covered by the sea or flooded at regular intervals. The Netherlands formed as the Rhine river carried eroded bedrock from the Alps and deposited this as sand sediments at the North sea shoreline forming a river delta. The river Meuse carried sediments from the ardennes and deposited it the same way as the Rhine.
Fairly all of the west Netherlands is composed of the Rhine-Meuse river estuary, but human intervention greatly modified the natural processes at work. Most of the western Netherlands is below sea level due to the human process of turning standing bodies of water into a polder. In eastern Holland, remains are found of the last ice age, which took place approximately ten thousand years ago. As the continental ice sheet moved in from the north, it pushed debrie forward. The ice sheet halted as it covered half of the netherlands. After the ice age ended, the debrie remained in the form a long hill-line. The cities of Arnhem and Nijmegen are built upon these hills.
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[edit] Paleozoic Era
Stones from the Carboniferous period (355-290 mya) can be found in the Heimans quarry four km below the surface. It has disappeared because of erosion, but there is sandstone from the Permian era (250 mya).
[edit] Future
The thick layer of sand and clay sediments will expand as more sediments cover the older ones, because of this pressure building up, these sediments will form sedimentary rock. The process of plate tectonics will shape the future of the Netherlands, 2 likely scenario's are up to emerge: 1. Closure of the atlantic ocean will result in the netherlands being uplifted and forming a huge mountain range. 2. Because of the northward motion of the African plate, the Alps will expand in size, which results in even more sediments being carried to- and, deposited in the Netherlands. This will cause the North sea to become less deep and the Dutch coastal area to expand.
