Seas, Lakes, and Rivers in Europe

The coastline of Europe is more fragmented than that of any other continent. It is estimated to have a length of 50,000 miles (80,000 km). Of the shallow seas that indent the continent, the Baltic, fringing the North European Plain, provides water access from the Atlantic eastward into the Russian Federation and the Baltic Republics. With few spots deeper than 600 feet (180 meters), this sea is connected with the North Sea only by narrow channels. The major navigable channel past Copenhagen, Denmark, is less than 4 miles (6.4 km) wide at its narrowest. The North Sea, likewise shallow, fills the opening between the British Isles and the mainland. The White Sea indents the Arctic coast of the Russian Federation. All of these seas result from the drowning of lowlands by the melting waters of the Ice Age.

Southern Europe is edged by the Mediterranean Sea, which is much deeper than the seas of the north and fills a series of basins. Compartmented by peninsulas and islands, the Mediterranean bears many names in different sections. Thus the portion between Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, and Italy is the Tyrrhenian Sea; between Italy and Croatia and Slovenia, the Adriatic; between Italy and Greece, the Ionian; and between Greece and Turkey, the Aegean. The Mediterranean is connected with the Black Sea by the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara, and the Bosporus, a drowned former river valley. The Caspian Sea, in southeastern Europe, is about 92 feet (28 meters) below sea level. It was connected with the Black Sea in recent geologic time.

Europe's principal lakes are in two areas, both of which had been glaciated. One area, developed by continental glaciation, extends across Scandinavia and northwestern Russia. Sweden, Finland, and the Karelian Autonomous SSR are dotted with thousands of lakes. But the largest lakes, Ladoga and Onega, lie in the lake-filled lowland between the White and Baltic seas. The other area of former glaciation is along the edges of the Alps where mountain glaciation scoured out valleys and dammed their lower reaches. Among the larger lakes in this zone are Geneva, Neuchâtel, Lucerne, and Zürich in Switzerland; Constance between Germany, Austria, and Switzerland; Maggiore and Lugano between Switzerland and Italy; and Como and Garda in Italy.

Many rivers flow across the continent from a watershed that stretches irregularly from southwest to northeast. In places the watershed is pronounced, as in the Alps, but within the Russian Federation it is low and indistinct. The longest river is the Volga (2,290 miles, or 3,685 km), which rises northwest of Moscow and follows a wide sweep eastward and southward to empty into the Caspian Sea. Other important rivers of the Russian plain are the Northern Dvina and the Pechora, flowing northward into the White and Barents seas, respectively, and the Don, Dnieper, and Dniester, flowing southward into the Black Sea. From the Alps the Rhine flows northward to the North Sea, and the Rhône southward to the Mediterranean. The Danube rises in the Black Forest and flows southeastward to the Black Sea.

Other major European rivers are the Po in Italy; the Ebro and Guadalquivir in Spain; the Guadiana, Tagus, and Douro in Spain and Portugal; the Garonne, Loire, and Seine in France; the Thames in England; the Weser and Elbe in Germany; the Oder in Poland and the Czech Republic; and the Vistula in Poland. The large number of streams that are navigable in parts of their courses has made inland water transportation more important in Europe than on any other continent. Important also has been the ease of canal construction over plains. It is possible to follow a water route from the mouth of the Loire on the Atlantic Ocean to the Ural Mountains and from the Mediterranean to the Barents Sea.

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