Why is the northern european plain important
Europe Physical and Climate (1)
you
your first heading that we're going to
be looking at is physical geography of
Europe
your first subheading is seas peninsulas
and islands europe and asia share a
common land mass called Eurasia it's the
connection between Europe and Asia Asia
is connected with Europe west of the
Ural Mountains most of Europe lies
within 300 miles of a Sea coast the
first aspect of seas peninsulas and
Islands that I want to look at is the
Netherlands the struggle with the sea
25% of the Netherlands lies below sea
level since the Middle Ages the Dutch
have built what's known as dikes these
are large banks of earth and stone their
purpose is to hold back the sea new land
has been reclaimed because of these
dikes these reclaimed lands are called
polders these are drained and kept dry
by windmills and they've have provided
hundreds of thousands of acres of
farmland for the Netherlands I want to
look at the peninsula's of Europe
remember a peninsula is a strip of land
that is surrounded on three sides by
water I we're going to look at the
northern peninsula stir stir up is a
large Peninsula made up of smaller
peninsulas because of glaciation which
occurred in the last ice age this is
when glaciers were all over the land of
Europe because of glaciation fjords were
carved out of the northern peninsulas a
Ford is a long narrow steep sided Inlet
on the Atlantic coastline specifically
the Scandinavian Peninsula which is what
we're looking at with a northern
peninsula many fjords provide very fine
harbors for ships to come in these
fjords you can see our jagged and
they're cut out of the land of the
Scandinavian Peninsula another northern
peninsula is Denmark it has the
potential of Jutland as it juts out into
the North Sea now to the southern
peninsula we have the Iberian Peninsula
which extends off the south
turn edge of Europe this is the home of
Spain and Portugal
you've got the Pyrenees Mountains that
separate the Iberian Peninsula from the
mainland of Europe you have the Apennine
Peninsula this is the peninsula that
houses Italy the boot that stretches out
into the Mediterranean Sea and then you
have the Balkan Peninsula which is aged
surrounded by the Adriatic and Ionian
Sea on the west with the Aegean and
Black Sea on the east now moving on to
mountains and Plains the first we're
going to look at mountains there's a
couple of mountain ranges that I want to
look at the first is the bend neva snout
in range of the British Isles these are
a very old mountain range and we know
this because this mountain range is
rounded at the top because of erosion
you will also have the Pyrenees
Mountains which are next to Spain these
are young mountains because they're very
tall and rugged and erosion has not
affected them yet there's also the Alps
this is the crescent-shaped mountain
range that extends from southern France
to the Balkan Peninsula now moving on to
planes the north european plane was
flattened by glaciers millions of years
ago the north european plane is home to
the Ruhr this is a region in Germany
that is very rich in coal that fuelled
industrialization this is spelled are
you H R the Ruhr also this North
European Plain is extremely fertile but
essentially what's most important about
this plane nowadays is the coal and
these resources that are found there now
moving on to water systems
there's many rivers that flow inland
from the mountains to the coast
what Europeans have done is they have
connected these rivers with canals which
have enhanced transportation routes and
natural waterways canals armed and
man-made waterways that are put there
for economic purposes or transportation
purposes now a couple of rivers I want
to point out to you the first is the
Thames in England it looks like the
Thames but it is not it is the Thames
that Thames in England allows a
going ships to reach the port in London
it's that big we have the Rhine which is
the most important river in Western
Europe this connects many industrial
cities which makes it the most important
River in Western Europe and then we have
the Danube which is Eastern Europe's
most important river and then the last
heading in physical geography is
resources the main thing I want to point
out to you is the availability of coal
this field the Industrial Revolution and
pretty much catapulted Europe to
becoming one of the most developed
continents in the world now moving on to
your second major topic of this section
of notes climate and vegetation first
subsection I want to look at is water
and land climates vary from cold barren
Tundra and subarctic of Iceland Norway
Sweden and Finland to the warm shrub
covered Mediterranean coasts of Italy
Spain and Greece water is the unique
determiner of climate in Europe think
about this the northern latitude of
Europe makes it very cold
however because of warm water ocean
currents areas warm next to the coast
that should normally be cold because of
its latitude so water is the key
determiner climate of Europe now I want
to look at Western Europe first much of
Western Europe has a marine West Coast
climate which means it has mild winters
cool summers and abundant rainfall the
Atlantic oceans Gulf Stream and northern
extension the North Atlantic drift bring
warm waters to this part of Europe from
the Gulf of Mexico and regions near the
equator this is extremely important in
determining the climate of Europe these
warm waters off of the Gulf Stream
around the Gulf Coast and the equator
make their way to Europe because of the
North Atlantic drift and warm the area
most of the natural vegetation in Europe
are in the Western Europe is deciduous
and coniferous
for us forst's deciduous forests are
made of trees that lose their leaves in
the fall coniferous forests are like
needles of leaves their leaves are like
needles now moving on to southern Europe
much of southern Europe has a
Mediterranean climate which is has warm
dry summers and mild rainy winters
there's also a pocket of humid
subtropical climate in northern Italy
and the Balkan Peninsula also Spain has
a drier steppe climate the Alps create a
rain shadow effect to the south side of
their mountain range which creates a
drier area you've also got wind system
determiners of climate in southern
Europe
you've got Mistral's which are strong
winds from the Alps that bring cold cold
winds to southern France and cool the
temperatures and then you have the
siroccos which are high dry winds from
northern Africa and they bring very hot
and dry climate temperatures to this
region and then the last climate region
I want to look at is the eastern and
northern European climate region this is
pretty much just cold in the east the
warm Atlantic currents cannot reach that
far and so it gets colder once the
currents of than the wind system can't
carry it anymore in the north it's just
a very high latitude so it's cold so
much so that there's permafrost with a
soil literally frozen year-round
