Geography of europe

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Topography of Europe
Europe at night

Geographically, Europe is the western part of the Eurasian plate that extends to Iceland . Europe has a land area of ​​10,532,000 km² and a coastline of around 117,000 km. Its north-south extension is about 3800 kilometers between the 36th ( Tarifa , Spain ) and the 71th ( Nordkinn , Norway ) degrees north latitude . The land mass of Europe stretches from east to west from the Ural Mountains in Russia to the Atlantic coast of Portugal , which means about 6000 kilometers west-east expansion. The Baltic shield contains the oldest part of Europe.

physical geography

Topographical description

Proposal by the Standing Committee on Geographical Names to delimit European regions

Overall, Europe is very fragmented. It includes some larger peninsulas such as the Iberian Peninsula , the Apennine Peninsula , the Scandinavian Peninsula and the Balkan Peninsula , as well as many other, smaller peninsulas such as Brittany and Jutland . There are also a number of islands; the largest are the British Isles , Iceland , Sicily and Sardinia .

In the north, Europe borders on individual marginal seas of the Arctic Ocean such as the Barents Sea and the European Arctic Ocean . Although the tributaries of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea are strictly within the continent, the North Sea is also viewed as the seaward border. In the southeast, Europe borders the Caspian Sea , in the south with the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea , and in the west with the Atlantic Ocean .

According to the usual definition of the “borders” of Europe, the highest point of the continent is in the Alps between France and Italy ( Mont Blanc - 4810 meters). It is less common to include the northern Caucasus in Russia as part of Europe. Then the Elbrus would be the highest point on the continent at 5642 m. The lowest point in Europe is 28 meters below sea level on the north coast of the Caspian Sea . In western Europe, the Dutch municipality of Nieuwerkerk aan den IJssel is almost 7 meters below sea level.

The topographical division of Europe is based on a proposal by the Standing Committee on Geographical Names . An alternative structure is, for example, that of the UN agency UNSD , which divides Europe into Northern Europe, Western Europe, Eastern Europe and Southern Europe.

See also: Center of Europe

Northern Europe

The Scandinavian Mountains are the largest mountain ranges in Northern Europe . There are big glaciers like the Jostedalsbreen , the Svartisen or the Folgefonna . In the south of Finland there is a system of terminal moraines , the Salpausselkä moraines and the Suomenselkä moraines , which are less than a hundred meters high but several hundred kilometers long. The archipelago of Spitsbergen and the island of Iceland in the North Atlantic are from the seabed of towering mountains. Iceland is home to the largest glacier in Europe, Vatnajökull , and the island's largest volcano, Hvannadalshnúkur . The Icelandic highlands are the inner part of Iceland, it is very dry, windy and almost deserted. There are no mountains in Denmark, the highest point is a terminal moraine that crosses the Jutland peninsula in a north-south direction and culminates at Møllehøj . It is the western end point of the Baltic ridge .

The Åland archipelago and the archipelago , which consists of 20,000 to 50,000 mostly small rocks, lie in the Baltic Sea off the southwest coast of Finland . There are also around 150,000 small and tiny islands off the Atlantic coast of Norway. The large islands of Öland and Gotland lie off the south-east coast of Sweden . About a third of the national territory of Denmark consists of islands, the largest are Zealand , the North Jutian Island and Funen .

Great lakes in Scandinavia are the lakes Vänern , Vättern and Mälaren in the south of Sweden . The Vänern and Vättern, together with the Trollhätte Canal and the Göta Canal, form a waterway across Sweden from the North Sea to the Baltic Sea. The area is known as the Central Swedish Depression and, thanks to the extremely fertile soils, it is the agricultural center of Sweden. The largest lakes in the Finnish Lake District are the Saimaa and the Päijänne , the largest lake in the Finnish part of Lapland is the Inarijärvi . Big fjords on the Atlantic coast are the Sognefjord , Hardangerfjord and Trondheimfjord , big rivers in Northern Europe are the Glomma , Kemijoki , Paatsjoki and Gudenå .

Lists on the geography of Northern Europe

Western Europe

In France, the great mountains in Western Europe are the Massif Central , the Northern Pyrenees , the French Jura and the Western Alps . There are several glaciers in the French Alps, such as the Mer de Glace and the Glacier des Bossons . The mountains of the Vosges and the Ardennes in France, Belgium and Luxembourg are not quite as high . Mountains in the British Isles include the Pennines , the South English Chalk Formation , the Lake District , the Grampian Mountains , the Northwest Highlands , the Cheviot Hills , the Cambrian Mountains , the Morne Mountains , the Macgillycuddy's Reeks and the Wicklow Mountains . The highest dune in Europe, the Dune du Pyla, is located on the French Atlantic coast .

Large rivers are the Loire , Seine , Garonne , Rhone , Meuse , Rhine , Scheldt , Shannon , Severn , Thames and Trent .

The largest lakes are Windermere , Lough Neagh , Lough Corrib , parts of Lake Geneva , the IJsselmeer and the Markermeer .

Lists on the geography of Western Europe

Central Europe

Large mountains in Central Europe are the Alps, the German low mountain range threshold , the Sudetes and in East Central Europe parts of the Dinaric Mountains and the Carpathians . The Baltic ridge is also large, but not very high.

The longest river is the Danube , which flows through Central Europe for the first half of its way. The major tributaries of the Danube are the Inn , the March , the Drau , the Tisza and the Save . Other large rivers are the Rhine , the Elbe with the large tributaries Moldau and Saale , the Oder with the tributary Warthe , as well as the Vistula and the Gauja .

Large lakes are Lake Balaton , parts of Lake Geneva, Lake Constance , Lake Neusiedl , parts of Lake Peipus , Võrtsjärv and Lake Neuchâtel

Lists on the geography of Central Europe

Eastern Europe

The surface relief of Eastern Europe is flat to wavy in large parts of the Eastern European plain . The peninsulas of Crimea with the Crimean Mountains and Kola with the Chibinen are particularly mountainous . On the border with Asia are the Urals and the Caucasus .

Among the Russian islands , the large double island of Nowaya Zemlya on the eastern edge of the Barents Sea stands out.

Great lakes in northeastern Europe are Lake Ladoga , Lake Onega , Lake Ilmen and Lake Peipus , which is located in both Estonia and Russia. Large reservoirs are the Kuibyshev Reservoir , the Rybinsk Reservoir , the Zimljansk Reservoir , the Kremenchuk Reservoir , the Kachowka Reservoir , the Saratov Reservoir , the Nizhny Novgorod Reservoir .

Major rivers of the Eastern European Plain are the Daugava , Memel , Southern Bug and Dnepr with the major tributaries Sosh , Bjaresina , Prypjat and its tributaries Horyn , Desna , Psel and Inhulez ; also the Don with the large tributaries Chopjor , Medveditsa and Siversky Donets . The Volga with its large tributaries Sura , Wetluga , Samara , Great Irgis , Oka , Kama and its tributaries Belaja and Vjatka also flows through the Eastern European Plain . Other major rivers in Eastern Europe are the Bug , the Dniester , the Pechora and the Urals .

Lists on the geography of Eastern Europe
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Southern Europe

In southern Europe , the great mountains on the Iberian Peninsula are the Pyrenees , the Sierra Nevada and the Meseta plateau , which is bordered by the Cantabrian Mountains in the north and the Sierra Morena in the south . In Italy there are parts of the Alps , on the Apennine peninsula and in the north of the island of Sicily there are the Apennines and only in Sicily the Monti Iblei , the Monti Erei and the Monti Sicani . The Etna in Sicily and the neighboring Aeolian islands are volcanoes or volcanic origin. Another volcano is Vesuvius , which, like the extinct volcanoes Monte Amiata and Monte Vulture, is on the European mainland. On the island of Sardinia the Gennargentu and on the island of Corsica the Cinto massif are the highest mountains. There are still some glaciers in the Pyrenees, for example at Aneto , there are several glaciers in the Italian Alps, for example the Ghiacciaio del Miage or the Langtauferer Ferner , and in the Apennines, where the southernmost glacier in Europe is, the Calderone Glacier is located .

Major rivers on the Iberian Peninsula are the Tagus , the Ebro , the Duero , the Guadiana , the Guadalquivir and the Júcar . The major rivers of the Apennine Peninsula are the Po , which flows through the Po Valley , the Adige and the Tiber .

Great lakes are Lake Garda and Lake Maggiore , a large reservoir is the Alqueva reservoir .

Lists on the geography of southern Europe

Southeast Europe

In Southeastern Europe the largest mountains are the Dinaric Mountains , the Carpathians , the Balkan Mountains , the Rila Mountains , the Rhodope Mountains , the Pirin Mountains , the Strandscha , the Pindos Mountains and the Taygetos Mountains . The Aegean Islands , like the Pindos Mountains and the Taurus Mountains in Western Asia, were created in the course of the alpine mountain formation . The islands are mountainous and some of them are big enough to be inhabited. Some of the islands and peninsulas in the southern Aegean have volcanoes (Aegean arches ), such as B. Methana , Aegina , Poros , Milos , Santorin (see also: Minoan Eruption ), Nea Kameni , Kos , Gyali , and Nisyros . The Aegean Sea is closed in the south by the island of Crete , where there are the Psiloritis massif , the Lefka Ori and the Dikti mountains .

The longest river is the Danube , which flows the second half of its way through southeast Europe. Its major tributaries are the Save , Olt , Sereth and Pruth . Other large rivers are the Mariza and the Mureș , a tributary of the Tisza.

Great lakes are the Skadar Lake , the Ohrid Lake and the Prespa Lake .

Lists on the geography of Southeast Europe

Size, limits and location

Europe has no clearly defined geographical or cultural borders. That is why the question of where Europe begins and where it ends is always a question of interpretation, which is ultimately answered by social agreement.

size

With around 10 million km², Europe is the second smallest continent. Europe has an extension of around 4000 km from north to south and 5000 km from east to west.

Limits

various historical demarcations for the Europe-Asia border

The European borders form the Mediterranean Sea to the Strait of Gibraltar in the south, the Atlantic Ocean in the west (where the border with North America is drawn between Iceland and Greenland), the Northern European Sea in the north and the Caspian and Black Sea and the Bosphorus in the southeast.

There is no generally accepted and undisputed definition of the border between Europe and Asia. Rather, the definition of boundaries followed changing historical and ideological criteria and was therefore subject to constant changes over time. Nowadays the Ural Mountains , the Ural River , the Caspian Sea , the Black Sea , the Bosphorus , the Sea of ​​Marmara and the Dardanelles are considered to be the "border" . The area between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea is particularly controversial. The discussion is about whether the main ridge of the Caucasus , the southern border of the Eastern European Plain or the Manytn lowlands serve as the border (which once connected the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea as a strait of sea ). The delimitation in the Aegean is also not clear . In general, the political border between Greece and Turkey is equated with the border between Europe and Asia, which has existed in its current form since 1923/47.

See also: Eurasia

expansion

Possible geographic extreme points in Europe

The westernmost point of Europe is on the Portuguese rocky island of Monchique near Flores (Azores) with about 39 ° 27 ′ 0 ″  N , 31 ° 16 ′ 0 ″  W , on the mainland it is Cabo da Roca in Portugal with 38 ° 46 ′ 51 , 4 "  N , 9 ° 30 '2.9"  W .

The easternmost point is Cape Olenij with about 76 ° 20 ′ 0 ″  N , 66 ° 58 ′ 0 ″  E in the north of the Russian island of Novaya Zemlya , on the mainland the Ural Mountains in its northern part reach the 67th east longitude .

The southernmost point of Europe: Cape Tripiti on Gavdos

The northernmost point is Cape Fligely with 81 ° 50 ′ 35 ″  N , 59 ° 14 ′ 22 ″  E on the Russian archipelago Franz Josef Land , which is, however, occasionally counted as part of Asia . Is indisputably expected to Europe, the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard , the northernmost island Røssøya to 80 ° 49 '44.4 "  N , 20 ° 20' 32.3"  O ranges. On the mainland the Cape has Kinnarodden on the peninsula Nordkinn in Norway the coordinates 71 ° 8 '2 "  N , 27 ° 39' 0"  O .

The southernmost point is Cape Tripiti on the Greek island of Gavdos with 34 ° 48 ′ 0 ″  N , 24 ° 7 ′ 0 ″  E , on the mainland is the Punta de Tarifa in Spain with 36 ° 0 ′ 24 ″  N , 5 ° 36 29 ″  W the southernmost point.

The geographic center of Europe is by a calculation of the National Geography Institute in France in 1989 in the village Purnuškės just north of Vilnius in Lithuania with the coordinates 54 ° 54 '0 "  N , 25 ° 19' 0 '  O .

Mountains and volcanoes

Mont Blanc in the Western Alps

Due to the plate tectonic shifts , a large number of mountains emerged in Europe. The most important are the Caucasus *, the Urals , the Alps , the Pyrenees , the Apennines and the Carpathians . Here is an overview of the highest mountains:

  1. Elbrus * (5642 m), Russia, Caucasus
  2. Dychtau * (5203 m), Russia, Caucasus
  3. Shchara * (5200 m), Russia / Georgia, Caucasus
  4. Koshtan Tau * (5150 m), Russia, Caucasus
  5. Dzhangi Tau * (5051 m), Russia / Georgia, Caucasus
  6. Kazbek * (5033 m), Russia / Georgia, Caucasus
  7. Katyn * (4974 m), Russia, Caucasus
  8. Gestola * (4974 m), Russia, Caucasus
  9. Mont Blanc (4810 m, with ice cap), France-Italy border, Alps
  10. Dzhimara * (4780 m), Russia / Georgia, Caucasus
  11. Ushba * (4737 m), Georgia, Caucasus
  12. Uilpata * (4648 m), Russia, Caucasus
  13. Dufourspitze (4634 m, Monte Rosa massif), Switzerland-Italy border, Alps
  14. Dom (4545 m), Switzerland, Alps
  15. Weisshorn (4505 m), Switzerland, Alps
  16. Lyskamm (4480 m), Switzerland-Italy border, Alps
  17. Matterhorn (4478 m), Switzerland-Italy border, Alps

 * Controversial because the inner Eurasian border is determined differently

Etna eruption in 2002

Due to the movement of the tectonic plates, there are numerous volcanoes in Europe, especially on the Eurasian plate boundary . The best known here at a glance:

  1. Etna (variable around 3370–3400 m), Sicily , Italy
  2. Ponta do Pico (2351 m), Azores , Portugal
  3. Beerenberg (2277 m), Jan Mayen , Norway
  4. Hvannadalshnúkur (2119 m, below Vatnajökull ), Iceland
  5. Grímsvötn (1725 m, below Vatnajökull), Iceland
  6. Herðubreið (1682 m), Iceland
  7. Hekla (1491 m), Iceland
  8. Vesuvius (approx. 1200 m), Italy
  9. Cabeço Gordo (1043 m), Azores , Portugal
  10. Stromboli (approx. 926 m), Italy
  11. Santorini (Σαντορίνη) (575 m), Greece

Rivers

European river basins and main watersheds
  1. Volga (3531 km)
  2. Danube (2811 km or 2857 km)
  3. Urals (2428 km)
  4. Dnepr (2285 km)
  5. Don (1870 km)
  6. Pechora (1809 km)
  7. Kama (1805 km)
  8. Oka (1500 km)
  9. Belaya (1430 km)
  10. Dniester (1352 km)
11. Vyatka (1314 km)
12. Rhine (1236 km)
13. Desna (1130 km)
14. Elbe (1094 km)
15. Siversky Donets (1053 km)
16. Vistula (1047 km)
17. Daugava (1020 km)
18. Loire (1020 km)
19. Chopjor (1010 km)
20. Tagus River (1007 km)

Lakes

The five largest lakes in Europe are:

  1. Lake Ladoga 18,390 km² (with islands)
  2. Onega Lake 9616 km²
  3. Vänern 5650 km²
  4. Saimaasee 4400 km² (as a lake system)
  5. Peipussee 3555 km²

Fjords

List of fjords

Climate and vegetation zones

Map of the biogeography of Europe.

Europe is predominantly located in the temperate climate zone . From west to east, maritime influences decrease and the climate is increasingly continental . H. the temperature differences between the seasons increase and the amount of precipitation decreases. Northern Europe is part of the cold temperate and subpolar climatic zone; the influence of the Gulf Stream is weaker than in Iceland or Norway. In the south there is a subtropical climate with the Mediterranean climate . The summers are hot and dry, the winters are mild and have a lot of rain.

The natural vegetation of Europe consists of a landscape with predominantly boreal coniferous forest vegetation in the north (especially Sweden and Finland), deciduous deciduous and mixed forest in the central latitudes (e.g. Germany and the United Kingdom) and subtropical-Mediterranean hardwood in the south (before especially Spain, Italy and Greece).

Human geography

Traffic geography

The European Union is developing a European network for road and rail traffic, the Trans-European Transport Network and the Pan-European Transport Corridors . The EU funding program Marco Polo has been in place for shipping since July 2003 , including the motorways of the sea .

The UN is pursuing the Trans-Asian Railway program , which aims to improve the rail network for freight traffic between Asia and Europe. For example, the north-south corridor will lead from northern Europe, across the Caspian Sea, to the Persian Gulf and the north corridor from central Europe to the PR China and South Korea (from January 2009 the Trans Eurasia Express will serve the China-Germany connection ).

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Europe, the creation of a continent. Mediathek Arte.tv, Saturday, July 26th at 8:15 p.m. (86 min.), From position: 1:22:00 p.m. Kirkenes in northern Norway: zirconium crystal 3.69 billion years old - oldest mineral crystal in Europe, repetition on Sunday, July 27th at 3:25 pm.
  2. ^ United Nations Composition of macro geographical (continental) regions, geographical sub-regions, and selected economic and other groupings
  3. ↑ see also regional divisions , there is also a comparison of different divisions of Europe
  4. ↑ Brockhaus Encyclopedia - 21st edition. FABrockhaus. Leipzig / Mannheim 2006. Article Europe: “The Urals have been the border between Europe and Asia since the 18th century ... Conventional borders with Asia are also formed by the Ural river, the Caspian Sea, the Manytn lowlands , the Black Sea, the Bosporus, the Sea of ​​Marmara, the Dardanelles and the Aegean Sea ” .
  5. ^ The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1998. Article Europe: "... West of the Caspian, the European limit follows the Kuma-Manych Depression and the Kerch Strait to the Black Sea" .
  6. ↑ Gewaesser Characteristics-Elbe, Plan flood prevention Dresden, 2010 On: dresden.de (pdf; 8.3 MB)
  7. ^ Diercke Weltatlas, Braunschweig: Westermann 1974, pp. 25, 83, 177.
  8. ↑ CIA World Factbook: European Union May 12, 2008 (English)
  9. ↑ Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment (Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison), Potential Vegetation Europe ( Memento of the original of July 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed June 21, 2008. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sage.wisc.edu

Web links

Commons : Europe  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikimedia Atlas: Geography of Europe  - geographical and historical maps