Europe:Europe:The BasicsThe Basics

Peninsulas

• Europe is one big peninsulas that has a lot of smaller peninsulas. Here are a few of them.

Scandinavian Peninsula.

• The Scandinavian Peninsula has a bunch fjords in them that ancient glaciers carved out.

• Jutland Peninsula

• Iberian Peninsula

• Italian Peninsula

• Balkan Peninsula

Mountains

• There are several mountain chains in Europe.

• The most prominent chain is the Alps, which go across France, Italy, Germany, and Switzerland.

• The Apennines run down the Italian Peninsula

• The Balkan Mountains

General uplands

• Hills, low mountains, and plateaus.

• Several, such as the Scottish Highlands, the Meseta in Spain and the Massif Central in France.

Rivers

• A big one is the Danube.

• The Rhine

Climate

• Europe is kept relatively warm due to wind and ocean currents bringing warmer tropical air north.

• This is the North Atlantic Drift.

• Mountain ranges tend to block some of the cold, dry winds from the north from affecting the Mediterranean region, but some parts without mountain cover still get it.

• The mistral wind is an example.

• Sometimes they also get the sirocco wind, a warm, dray wind sweeping in from North Africa.

Human-Environment Interaction

Polders

• These are areas in the Netherlands that were reclaimed from the sea.

This is mainly done in the Netherlands

• The dikes are earthen dams that help hold back the sea from the Netherlands generally.

• There also terpen, which are high areas people can go to in case of flooding.