(252 to 201 million years ago)
No rocks of this age are known to be preserved within Fforest Fawr Geopark. The nearest preserved Triassic rocks are found along the Severn Estuary and the southern flanks of the South Wales Coalfield around Porthcawl and Bridgend.
A major mountain belt – the Variscan Mountains – lay to the south; its presence a result of the earlier collision of the former continents of Laurussia and Gondwanaland to form the mega-continent of Pangaea. The Fforest Fawr area itself probably consisted of low hills lying under arid skies.
What’s in a name?
The name of this period comes from the three distinctive layers which characterise rocks of this age in much of northern Europe.