Geography of Ireland

The geography of Ireland describes a island located at the western north of the European continent in the northern Atlantique.

The island has a Western coast very cut out with important Péninsule S and is strewn with very many smaller islands.

The general aspect of the island is appeared as a large central plain surrounded by a crown of coastal mountains. The top is the Carrauntuohill which rises with 1041 meters. The central plain is strewn with many lakes as the Lough Neagh which is more the big lake of British Isles.

The island is traversed by the river Shannon on 259 km with a 113 km long estuary what makes of it the longest river of Ireland and the British Isles. It takes its source in the south of the Comté of Cavan and is thrown in the Atlantic in the south of the Comté of Limerick.

Its geodetic situation is roughly of 53° Northern and western 8°. Its surface is of 84.079 km ². The island is separated from the United Kingdom by the Irish Sea.

At the political level the island of Ireland gathers the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland.

Physical geography

Geological formation of the island

The oldest rock of Ireland goes back to approximately 1.7 billion years and was found on the island of Inishtrahull on the coast of the Comté of Donegal. In other places of Donegal, the scientists discovered rocks which agglomerated starting from drifts, showing that at that time moved back Ireland knew old glacial. Around 600 million years, at the end of the Precambrian , the terrestrial mass Irish E was cut into two, a part in the west of the ocean Lapetus and the other in the east, both being with the current latitude of the South Africa. Fossile S discovered in Bray Head in the Comté of Wicklow prove that Ireland was at this time there under the sea level.

During the 45 million following years, these two parts moved one towards the other and perhaps met 400 million years ago. Fossils discovered close to Clogherhead in the County of Louth, watch the meeting of faunas of the littorals of this old ocean. The mountains of the western north of Ireland were formed at the time of this collision as well as the granite found in various places of Donegal and the Wicklow. The terrestrial mass of Ireland was then emerged and at the level of Ecuador. One finds trees fossilized close to Kiltorcan in the Comté of Kilkenny, osseous fish, the moulds and the prints of Amphibians close to Stall on the island of Valentia like witnesses of this time.

Between 400 million and 300 million years, the western north of the Europe - including Ireland - crumbled in a sea hot and rich in calcium. Large coral reefs were formed in this sea. After the shrinking of water, tropical forests and marshes developed. The vegetable remains resulting from these environments were possibly transformed into coal. The majority of these deposits were eroded thereafter. This period, known as the era of the Carbonifère ended in great movements of tectonic plates which saw Ireland raising itself towards north. This pressure created the assembly lines of Ireland which are on a northern axis is/southern west.

Approximately 250 million years ago, Ireland was with a latitude close to that of the current Egypt and knew a desert climate. It is at this period that the major part of coal and the sedimentary rocks were eroded. The finest layers of sedimentary deposits in the south of the country were also affected by erosion.

Mountains

Ireland consists of vast a central Plaine basic altitude surrounded by small coastal assembly lines. In the direction of the needles of a watch one finds on the basis of Connemara the unit formed by the Twelves Bens and the Mamturks mounts, the Nephinbeg Mounts, Mounts OX, the mountains of Derryveagh, Bluestack, and Sperrin, Glens off Antrim, Mournes, the Mounts of Wicklow, Blackstair and Comeragh and finally the chain of Macgillycuddy' S Reeks. Small mountains are more inside the grounds in the southern half of the island: the mounts Galtee, Silvermines and Slieve Bloom. The culminating point is the Carrauntuohill with 1041 meters of altitude. It is in the Macgillycuddy' S Reeks in the Comté of Kerry in the western south of Ireland.

In all the cases these mountains are never high: only 3 peaks exceed hardly the 1000 meters and 455 others the 500 meters of altitude.

See also: List of the mountains of Ireland

Littoral

The large swells of the howling quarantièmes, the latitudes of the wind of permanent west which since Newfoundland did not meet any obstacle, break with crash on the rock points of the Côte of Erin. During centuries, they dug the tender parts of them not to more let appear in scum but the most sharp-edged edges.

Lakes and rivers

The largest river of the island is the Shannon which 386 km is long. It is the longest river of British Isles. Shannon separates the unit from the Midlands of the West of the more mountainous island. It feeds three lakes along its course: Lough Allen, Ree and Derg. Shannon is thrown in the Ocean Atlantique in the estuary which bears its name to the west of the town of Limerick. The other principal rivers are the Liffey, the Lee, Blackwater, Nore, Suir, Barrow and the Boyne.

The Lough Neagh, in Ulster, is more the big lake of Ireland. The legend made gone up its creation with the action of the Giant Fionn mac Cumhail. It fought against another Scottish Giant but that one. Mad it launched a piece of ground to him which missed its target and fell at sea from Ireland creating the Île from Man. During this time there the hole made by the giant filled with water becoming himself Lough Neagh.

The other principal lakes are the Lough Corrib and Erne.

Islands and peninsulas

Climate

The climates of Ireland are:

oceanic because of the North Sea;
.

Natural resources

See too

External bonds

the peninsula of Dingle: geomorphological study, by Corinne Feïss, doctor in Geography.

Dublin, new Western end of the European megalopolis? by Philippe Brillet, Doctor in Geography.

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