Physical Features and Landforms of Europe

Europe is the northwesterly portion of the world's largest landmass, other parts of which are Africa and Asia. Also included in Europe are thousands of nearby islands, such as the British and Aegean islands, and several distant ones, such as Iceland and the Svalbard group. Europe is in fact a complex peninsula jutting westward from Asia. By tradition, the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, and the Caucasus Mountains form the southern limit; the North Atlantic Ocean and its northeastward extensions, the Norwegian and Barents seas, the western and northern limits; and the Ural Mountains, Ural River, and Caspian Sea, the eastern limit. Thus outlined, the total area of the continent is about 4 million square miles (10.4 million sq km).

Europe stretches from the margins of low latitudes into high latitudes beyond the Arctic Circle. The southernmost point on the mainland is Punta de Tarija on the Strait of Gibraltar at 36°2′ N. If islands are included, the southernmost point is on Gavdos, off the south shore of Crete in the eastern Mediterranean, at 34°47′ N. In northern Norway the mainland reaches 71°6′ N, nearby islands 71°14′ N, and Svalbard just beyond 80°N. From southern Greece to northern Norway is a distance of 2,400 miles (3,900 km); from southwestern Portugal to the southern Ural Mountains, 3,300 miles (5,300 km). If Europe were moved due west and superimposed upon North America, the Strait of Gibraltar would lie halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, Calif.; the center of Crete, at Memphis, Tenn.; northern Norway, in the Arctic Archipelago of Canada; and the southern Ural Mountains, in southern Labrador. Europe's northerly position is emphasized when one notes that Rome is farther north than New York City, Paris than Seattle, and London than Winnipeg.

Despite its small size, Europe presents a wide range of landforms, from plains below sea level, protected from flooding by dikes, to lofty, crested mountains. Across the south stretch young rugged mountains. They reach the Atlantic as the Pyrenees along the border between France and Spain, and as the Sierra Nevada in southeastern Spain. Both ranges have elevations over 11,000 feet (3,350 meters). Rugged mountains form the Mediterranean coast in southeastern France. The Apennines stretch southeastward to form the backbone of Italy, reaching 9,554 feet (2,912 meters) in the Gran Sasso d'Italia, 65 miles (105 km) northeast of Rome. The Alps curve first northward and then eastward along the borders of France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Austria, and Slovenia. They reach their greatest elevation (15,771 feet, or 4,807 meters) on Mont Blanc, located near the junction of the French, Swiss, and Italian frontiers.

The same mountain structure continues eastward in two separate arms. One makes a sweep, shaped like an inverted letter S, through Slovakia, southern Poland, central Romania, and northern Bulgaria to reach the Black Sea. The other follows southeastward along the Adriatic Sea, turning southward to end in southern Greece. Each belt bears individual names in different sections of its course. The northern is known successively as the Beskids, Tatra, Carpathians, Transylvanian Alps, and in its Bulgarian section, the Balkan Mountains. Elevations are highest (8,711 feet, or 2,655 meters) in the Tatra Mountains along the Polish-Slovak boundary. The southern belt is known as the Dinaric Alps, which run from Slovenia to Albania, and the Pindus in Greece.

In extreme southeastern Europe, the Caucasus Mountains extend from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea. These mountains consist of a backbone range running as a single wall from one sea to the other, flanked on the north by parallel, discontinuous ranges. One of the flanking ranges is higher than the axial range and includes several peaks over 16,000 feet (4,800 meters) in elevation. Of these, Mt. Elbrus (18,510 feet, or 5,642 meters) is the highest peak in Europe.

From France to the Black Sea there is no north-south lowland opening through the mountain barrier, though mountain passes are numerous. Where breaks in the mountains occur, blocky plateaus, often so dissected as to appear mountainous, fill the gaps. Thus the Spanish Meseta lies between the Pyrenees and the Sierra Nevada, the Massif Central almost fills the opening between the Pyrenees and the Alps, and the Rhodope closes the gap between the Pindus and the Balkan Mountains. In France the Rhône Valley provides a lowland route between the Alps and Massif Central, and the Carcassonne lowland between the Massif Central and the Pyrenees. Nowhere else is there direct lowland passage from Mediterranean Europe to northwestern Europe. The Dardanelles—Sea of Marmara—Bosporus opening forms a water passage from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea. From there the Danube River, cutting twice across the mountain barrier, once at the Iron Gate in southwestern Romania and once at Vienna, provides an indirect route. Elsewhere there are only mountain passes.

Flanking the mountain system on the north from France eastward into Ukraine is a belt of plateaus, hills, and low mountains with included small lowlands; it is known collectively as the Central Uplands. The Ardennes plateau of northern France and Belgium, continuing as the Rhine highland of Germany, forms the western bulwark. Prominent low mountains include the Vosges in France, the Black Forest in Germany, and the ranges that outline the Czech Republic—the Bohemian Forest, the Erzgebirge, and the Sudetes. The Middle Rhine plain, or Rhine Graben, from the Swiss frontier to Frankfurt-am-Main and Wiesbaden and between the Vosges and Black Forest, is the most conspicuous lowland within the belt.

Europe's other significant highland forms the backbone of Scandinavia, continuing in the Highlands of Scotland and the north of Ireland and the Ural Mountains in the Russian Federation. Rising abruptly from the Atlantic, its western edge carved deeply by glacial valleys now drowned by the sea (fjords), the Scandinavian highland attains its greatest elevation (8,166 feet, or 2,489 meters) in southern Norway. The Ural Mountains, low and rising gently from the west, reach 6,217 feet (1,895 meters) just south of the Arctic Circle.

The remainder of the continent is a series of plains fitting between the upland areas. The Mediterranean side of the southern mountains is characterized by small plains backed by mountains or plateaus and usually open on one side to the sea—for example, Andalusia in Spain, the plain of the Midi along the coast of France, the Po lowland of Italy, and the plain of Athens in Greece. A few plains, such as Aragón in Spain and the Hungarian Plain, are encircled by highlands. North of the mountains, the great North European Plain funnels eastward from a scant 50-mile (80-km) width in Belgium to the whole width of the continent, over 1,200 miles (1,930 km), between the Black Sea and the Arctic in the Russian Federation. In the Netherlands and Belgium, the outer edge of this plain has been reclaimed from the sea and is maintained as dry land by diking and pumping.