The red hot find which proved South Tyneside once basked in Bahamas-style heat all year round
‘Once a tropical environment, like offshore Bahamas’
South Tyneside was revelling in a heatwave 15 years ago today - but a scientist from the borough helped prove the region once basked like the Bahamas all year round.
Professor Paul Younger, from Hebburn, was part of a 2011 team which struck hot water after spending four months looking for a geothermal energy source.
A Shields Gazette report at the time said: “Their discovery aptly came on one of the hottest days of the year so far, with temperatures on South Tyneside soaring.
“During the early hours, the giant drill hit a hot-water source 2,000m below the earth’s surface at the Science City site.”
The £900,000 project marked the first deep excavation in the UK since the 1980s and the scientists then planned to pump the water back up to the surface so that it could heat local buildings.
Prof Younger, from Newcastle University, said in 2011: “This hot water could be available 24/7 because it doesn’t depend on the weather. It is as cheap and as low-carbon as it comes.”
The drill also went through a coal seam at a depth of 660m that nobody knew existed and uncovered fossils thousands of years old. That was the discovery which helped prove the area was once tropical.
Newcastle University geology student Laura Armstrong had been examining fossils that were discovered in a block of limestone more than 1,000m below the ground.
“It is one of the most exciting things we’ve found, ” she said.
The shells and corals suggested that Tyneside ‘was once a tropical environment, like offshore Bahamas.’
Meanwhile, other South Tynesiders were getting on with the job of enjoying the weather.
Temperatures soared above the 30C mark, smashing a high of 29C days earlier and people in the borough were quick to take advantage, with beaches and parks full of revellers.
Families frolicked in South Marine Park, taking to the pedal boats, while others cooled off in the sea.
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