Eps 2: Northern Europe Landscape
Europe is the western peninsula of the giant "supercontinent" of Eurasia.
Select from the educational resources to teach middle school students more about physical boundaries.
Students are introduced to the physical geography of Europe and delineate major drainage basins in Europe.
Host
Justin Horton
Podcast Content
Europe stretches from the island state of Iceland in the west to the Russian Urals In the east and from Iceland to the Russian northern border. Its northernmost point is in the archipelago of Spitsbergen in Norway and can be reached by air or sea via the Arctic Circle and the Barents Sea. The western highlands are defined by the hard, ancient rocks shaped by glaciation, such as the Himalayas.
Europe is a peninsula of the Eurasian supercontinent bordering the Mediterranean, the Atlantic and the Black Sea. Its main island is Scandinavian Jutland, which is located in northern Europe, while the Iberian, Italian and Balkan regions are located in southern Europe. Northern Europe stretches from the Northern European lowlands to the Arctic Circle and from Iceland to the west to the Russian northern border.
The population of Northern Europe is relatively small, with a total population of about 3.5 million people, which is about one third of the total population of Europe. These countries have relatively small populations and enjoy relatively high levels of economic prosperity and social mobility.
Since the most northerly areas are in a cold climate, urbanization is quite high and the land is so widespread that it can be cultivated. This index is of great value in areas with low deforestation, such as northern Europe. We also experienced significant forest loss in the later prehistory, but the areas of the Middle East, North Africa and parts of South America have also experienced significant deforestation due to climate change.
The earliest date of forest clearance in England is the Domesday record, which shows that in 1086-50 only 15% of the land surveyed was still forested.
The PFT and PBM - SC indicate that the extent of the boreal forests has changed significantly in the last 2,000 years, especially in Northern Europe. For example, due to the increasing human influence on the northern European landscape due to Nordic expansion 38, the forest area of the Boreale has declined from a modern value of 55-60% to less than 10% of pre-industrial levels in the 20th century, partly due to increasing human influences on the landscapes of northern Germany and Scandinavia. In terms of area, the average forest area seems to be roughly the same as in medieval Europe, although important regional differences are obscured by the large number of large-scale forest fires and other human activities such as logging and mining.
In terms of topography, Europe can be divided into four major geographical regions, stretching from north to south, purp. Western lowland areas, defined as the boreal forests of Northern Europe 12, 19, 21, 39 and Central Europe, for example, were always wooded, but much less densely wooded than in Central Germany and Scandinavia, or much denser in Northern and Eastern Europe.
This is, of course, a very general observation, but it becomes obvious when one compares the topography of Northern Europe with that of Central and Eastern Europe and vice versa.
France covers 211,209 square miles and is the second largest European country, but Ukraine is slightly larger in area. These include Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic.
The physical landscape of France is very different, from the northern, low-lying coastal plains to the Alpine ranges to the east and the Alps to the east. The Italian border of France is at the southern end of the Mediterranean Sea, between Italy and the southernmost coast of Italy.
In the south and centre of the country is the Massif Central, a plateau or highland region consisting of large parts of extinct volcanoes. The low mountain range stretches from west to east across western and central Europe and includes the Alps, the Caspian Sea and the Mediterranean Sea as well as parts of Italy, Spain, Italy and Germany.
The Alps cover parts of Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, Hungary, Austria and Austria. This area is heavily forested and sparsely populated, although it is surrounded by large rivers. The region covers the Alps, the Caspian Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, as well as parts of the Caucasus.
The low mountain ranges of Germany are located at the foot of the Alps, and there are hills and very low mountains, which can also contain table mountains and plateaus. Examples of plateaus are the Scottish highlands and the central plateau of Spain, called Meseta.
About one-sixth of France is located in the highlands, the Massif Central, and about three-quarters of the country's total land area is made up of plateaus.