Europe-+Geography

Europe is a very large peninsula surrounded by the Atlantic ocean and Barents seas on the west and the Mediterranean from the south. In the east it is separated from Asia by the Ural Mountains. Europe also includes thousands of isles scattered throughout.

__Topography:__ The topography is Europe includes a wide array of land forms from the rolling green plains in Ireland and Scotland to the great Alps running through Switzerland. Europe is a rather hilly continent. The higher mountains tend to be in the south, though there is some high elevation in Sweden and Norway to the north. The map below shows the topography of Europe.

__Climate:__ The climate of Europe, like the topography, varies immensely. It is defined as a marine type climate meaing that for the most part winters are mild and summers are cool. Europe has eight divisions of zones in its climate: Dry Climates, Western Atlantic climate, Mediterranean climate, Eastern European climate, Arctic climate, and three transitional climates based between the other divisions. -The Western Atlantic climate zone consists of the coastline from North Cape to Northwest Spain. They have a mild winters but cool and windy springs and summers. - The Mediterranean zone is along the shores of the Mediterranean sea. They have sun half the time and rain the other half, and the summers are warm -The Atlantic zone is in north Russia in the Russian and Scandinavian mountains. There, it is very cold and summers are brief and cool. - The Dry climate area in smaller and is in the interior or the urban peninsula. It is surrounded by mountains which catch much of the rain making it very dry. In the Dry zone there is less than 15 inches of precipitation is received in a whole year -Transitional zones are the area between each climate zone. They have a mix of weather from each or the surrounding zones.

This is another type of view of the climate of Europe. []

Information source: "Europe". Collier's Encyclopedia v. 9 New York, copyright 1993



__Rivers, Seas, and Lakes:__ Europe has over 500,000 natural lakes and hundreds of rivers, the largest of which are the Volga River and Lake Lagoda. The Volga River runs 2,290 miles through Russia into the Caspian Sea and Lake Lagoda covers 17,670 square km and is also located in Russia. Europe also is home to the Mediterranean, Black, Baltic, Norwegian, Barents, North, White, and Caspian seas. The Caspian Sea is the lowest elevation point in Europe. []

__Information at a Glance:__

__Area:__ 10,360,000 square kilometers (4,000,000 square miles)

__Highest Elevation:__ Mt. Elbus, USSR at 5,642 m (18,510 ft above sea level)

__Lowest Elevation:__ Caspian Sea, USSR at 28 m (92 ft below sea level)

__Longest River:__ the Volga River, which flows through Russia is 3,685 km (2,290 miles) long

__Notherernmost Point:__ Cape Nordkinn, Norway

__Southernmost Point:__ Point Marroqui, Spain

__Easternmost Point:__ Ural Mountains, Russia

__Westernmost Point:__ Capa da Roca, Portugal

Bibliography: "Europe". Collier's Encyclopedia v. 9 New York, copyright 1993 [] [] [] Pictures: [|http://www.travelinstyle.com/greece/imagesgreece/sunset_01.jpg] [|http://oudegeest.com/pages/Europe_scenery/interlakmtntop.jpg] [|http://homepage.eircom.net/~antintean/IRLSLG.JPG]