In ancient geological time this shelf was part of Gondwana, and around 400 million years ago split from what is now Africa and drifted westwards from it.

[1] The geological history of the Falkland Islands began during the Precambrian era more than 1 billion years ago, when Proterozoic granites and gneisses were laid down in Gondwana.

These layers of sand and mud filled the basin as it sank and as they hardened they produced the rocks of the sedimentary Lafonia Group of the Falklands.

[4] About 290 million years ago, in the Carboniferous period, an ice age engulfed the area as glaciers advanced from the polar region eroding and transporting rocks.

These rocks were deposited as extensive moraines and glacial till, or they sank in the sea while the glacier floated in a layer of ice.

When the glacial sediments were turned into stone they formed the rocks that now make up the Fitzroy Tillite Formation in the Falklands.

[2] During the break-up of Gondwana and the formation of the Atlantic Ocean some 200 million years ago, minor crustal fragments that were to become the Falkland Islands detached themselves from the nascent African continent and drifted westwards, dividing and rotating as they did so before settling on the Patagonian Shelf.

The Hornby Mountains, near Falkland Sound have experienced tectonic forces of uplift and folding which has inclined the quartzite beds of Stanley to the vertical.

the "Ice Age"), relative sea level was some 46 metres (151 ft) lower than the present time–sufficient for the sound to be bridged.

[13] The area away from the mountain range consists chiefly of low undulating ground, a mixture of pasture and morass, with many shallow freshwater tarns, and small streams running in the valleys.

Two inlets, Berkeley Sound and Port William, run far into the land at the north-eastern extremity of the island and provide anchorage for shipping.

The resulting solidified sheets can now be seen in the form of dikes that cut the oldest sedimentary layers, those that lie principally in the southern part of East Falkland and in South Africa.

Mount Adam, the highest point in the island and part of the Hornby Hills, is 700 metres (2,300 ft) above sea level.

In the margins of these depressions there is evidence of contact baking or hornfels formation adjacent to the once molten basalt dyke.

[15] It protrudes some 760 km (470 mi) into the South Atlantic Ocean from the Patagonian coastline and slopes gently to 200 metres (110 fathoms) before falling away; the Falkland Islands being located two thirds of the way along this protrusion.

[18] Licences to harvest the large variety of fish that live on the shelf provides a major source of income for the islands as does the licensing of oil exploration.

[15] The only terrestrial mammal upon the arrival of Europeans was the warrah, the loup-renard of Louis Antoine de Bougainville, a kind of fox found on both major islands that became extinct in the mid-19th century.

[29][30][31][32] Slater suggests that the warrah was introduced into the Falkland Islands either by rafting or by dispersal of glacial ice during one of the glaciations of the late Pleistocene epoch (2.5 million and 15,000 years ago).

[38] The squid spawn in the mouth of the Río de la Plata close to the confluence of the cold Falklands current and the warm Brazilian current, migrate southwards along the Patagonian Shelf into the Falklands waters and then return to their spawning grounds along that lies off the continental shelf.

[15] Some bogs and fens exist, freshwater plants include the soft-camp bog, Astelia pumila (Asteliaceae) dwarf marigold Caltha appendiculata (Ranunculaceae) and gaimardia Gaimardia australis (Centrolepidaceae) and the carnivorous sundew Drosera uniflora (Droseraceae).

Over 80% of the islands' land is given over to sheep farming, with half a million animals being supported on 11,239 km2 of farmland, of which 40 km2 was perennial pasture.

[15] Vegetation such as tussac grass, fachine, and native box (Veronica elliptica) have been heavily affected by introduced grazing animals.

Many breeding birds similarly only live on offshore islands, where introduced animals such as cats and rats are not found.

[49] Rats[31] and grey foxes have been introduced and are having a detrimental impact on birds that nest on the shores, as are feral cats.

Twenty-two introduced plant species are thought to provide a significant threat to local flora.