Geography of Finland
The Finland is the most septentrional country of Europe: a third of its surface is beyond the Arctic Circle. It divides land borders with the Sweden in the west, the Norway in north and the Russia in the east. Its maritime frontages open on the the Baltic, with in the west the Gulf of Bothnia and in the south the Golfe of Finland.
The essence of the surface of Finland rests on an old man Socle hercynien smoothed by the Glacier S. the withdrawal of those at the end of the Glaciation of Würm left a landscape characteristic of granitic hills strewn with thousands of lakes and ponds. Finland is a country of: 338145 km ², distributed in: 304623 km ² of ground and: 33522 km ² of lakes - the country has some: 187888 exactly. Water accounts for 10% of the territory. In the middle of the country, the lake Saimaa is the larger fifth of Europe, with a surface of: 1147 km ².
The Finnish landscape is flat in the south-western part and in the vast coastal plains of Ostrobotnie, undulating of hills in the center and - altitude lower than 350 meters in the south of the parallel 65e is. The Lapland sometimes mountainous, but is generally made of vast rather plane extents occupied by lakes, marshes and peat bogs. The reliefs most characteristic of Lapland are the “tunturit” (singular “tunturi”, English fell and Swedish fjäll), hills whose altitude exceeds the limit of the forest which in this subarctic area with the climate is relatively low, around 300m in the surroundings of Sodankylä for example. The highest point (: 1328 m), the mount Halti, are in the north-western point of the Lapland, close to the Norwegian border. In the south of Turku, the east coast very broken, presenting many courses, reefs and islands. Finland counts: 179584 islands, whose majority are in the Archipel of Åland and along the southernmost coast of the Golfe of Finland, in particular in the Archipel of Turku.
The lakes amount per tens of the thousands, vastest of them being the Lac Saimaa and the Lac Päijänne. The landscape in addition is dominated by the forests boreal S (conifers and birches) (approximately 68% of the country) and the country has relatively little arable lands. Moraine S sand spreaders of several tens of kilometers length, like those of Salpausselkä or Suomenselkä, also form an aspect characteristic of the Finnish landscape.
The withdrawals of the old glaciers make it possible the Finland to gain each year of the territory on the the Baltic. Indeed, relieved of their weight, the south of Finland rises by places of several millimetres per annum. It is the effect of Isostasie. The surface of the country increases approximately seven to ten square kilometers per annum.
The Climat of southernmost Finland is Scandinavian. In Finland of north, particularly in Lapland, the Climat subarctic dominates, characterized by winters sometimes very cold. The hot currents of the Gulf Stream which moderate Norway and Sweden, also moderate Finland to a lesser extent: the winds of west bring in the grounds the air of the marine currents, thus heating the country, mainly in its southern part.
See too