THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY of
EUROPE
What makes it a Region?
Located in the Northern
Hemisphere
Generally mild climate
Many languages and cultures
Dreadful common past (wars,
famines, etc)
Powerful and emerging economies
The Land
Key Terms:
Glaciation
Loess
Dike
Polder
Fjord
Places of Interest
Alps
North Sea
Rhine River
Mediterranean
Sea
Po River
Northern
European Plain
Baltic Sea
British Isles
Aegean Sea
Danube River
Black Sea
The Land: Main Idea
Europe’s Landscape has shaped the lives and settlement
patterns of Europeans
Northwestern mountains rounded by erosion and glaciation
(how glaciers form and spread)
Ex: Ben Nevis- highest peak in British Isles
Central Uplands (Iberian Peninsula to Eastern Europe)
Meseta- Spain
Massif Central- France
Southern Europe (Jagged mountains)
Pyrenees and Alps
Alps- S. France to Balkan Peninsula
Mont Blanc- Highest peak in Alps (15, 771 ft)
Po and Rhine head waters in the Alps
Southern Europe (cont)
Carpathian Mountains
Eastern Europe- from Slovakia to
Romania
Northern European Plain
Fertile = farming
1800s- discovery of mineral deposits
Paris, and Berlin located there
Other point of interest
Great Hungarian Plain
The Alps
Seas, Peninsula’s and Islands
Most of Europe is about 300 miles from the sea coast
Good and bad
Netherlands
25 % of it is under sea level
Forced to build dikes to hold back water
Polder- land between dikes
Europe’s Peninsula’s
Northern Peninsula- largest
Scandinavian PeninsulaCaused by glaciation
Fjords- steep sided inlets
Southern Peninsula
Main feature = Mediterranean Sea
Europe’s Islands
Iceland
Volcanoes, hot springs, and geysers
Hot springs provide natural heating for homes
British Isles
Great Britain, Ireland, and many small islands
Rocky cliffs; steep bays
Mediterranean Sea
Sicily, Corsica, Sardinia, Crete, Cyprus
Water Systems
Rivers flow from the mountains to the coast
Used for transport, irrigation, and hydroelectric power
Different regions, different systems
Scandinavian Peninsula = short and not connected
Iberian Peninsula = narrow and shallow
England (Thames) = ships can reach the Port of London
Rhine
Most Important in Western Europe
Swiss Alps to France, Germany, and the Netherlands
Connects industrial cities to the Port of Rotterdam in the
Black Sea
Water Systems (cont)
Danube
Links southern Germany to Hungary and
Romania
Natural Resources
Influence economic activity in Europe
Iron and coal led to the modernization of
Europe
Coal, Iron, Oil, Natural Gas, Nuclear and
Hydroelectric power
France, Sweden, Ukraine – Iron Ore
Rhine River
The Danube
Climate and Vegetation
Key Terms:
Permafrost, timberline, mistral, sirocco, foehn, avalanche
Main Idea
Latitude, mountain barriers, wind patterns, and distance from large
bodies of water influence Europe’s climate
Vary from cold and barren to warm and shrub covered
Western and Southern Climate
Maritime winds shape it
North Atlantic Current – leads to mild
climate
Eastern and Northern
Colder because of distant from the
Atlantic Ocean
Climate Regions
Cold in the North to dry steppe in the South
Wind, ocean currents, latitude, and landforms, all shape
Europe’s climates
High – Latitudes
Cold winter; short summer
Tundra regions = have permafrost
Subarctic = coniferous
EXCEPTION
Western Norway, Iceland, and Sweden
Warmer because they are on the water
90 inches of rainfall annually, because of the Norwegian,
and North Atlantic Currents
Midlatitudes
Marine West Coast
Mild winters, cool summers, abundant rainfall
Shaped by the Gulfstream and North Atlantic Currents
Deciduous (leaves fall in Winter) and coniferous trees
Southern Europe
Mediterranean Climate
Hot, dry Summer; mild rainy Winter
Other forces
Mistral – strong wind from Northern Alps; bitterly cold
winds
Siroccos – dry winds blowing in from Africa; heat wave
Eastern Europe
Humid – continental
Cold, snowy winters; hot summers
Alps
Highland Climate
Foehns- winter winds that cause avalanches
Dry Regions
Parts of S.E. and S.W. Europe
Dry steppe climate
Dry cold grassland from Hungary, Serbia,
Montenegro, and Romania
Hot Summer; Extreme Winter
Meseta
81,000 sq. mi
Madrid is at its center
Meseta