Newcastle - come on in, the waters lovely.

Earlier this week, scientists drilling a geo-thermal bore in Newcastle struck 'gold'.

As we reported last year, they were drilling on the site of the former Newcastle Brewery, hoping to tap into a plentiful geo-thermal resource, that could eventually power the entire city.

As they watched steam rush to the surface after drilling 2km (6,562ft), other scientists were getting equally excited about the fossil records that had been bought back to the surface during the drilling.

Samples show early indications that the area was once a Bahama like paradise.

The 300-million year old rocks were extracted from 100ft below the surface during the drilling project which cost £900,000.

The team is aiming to use green geo-thermal energy to heat and power the immediate city centre.

photo credit: joanna penn