Europe

Landforms & Resources

Peninsulas and IslandsEurope is sometimes called a “peninsula

of peninsulas” Scandinavian Peninsula (Norway & Sweden) Jutland Peninsula (Denmark & Germany) Iberian Peninsula (Spain & Portugal) Italian Peninsula (Italy) Balkan Peninsula (Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia

and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, and Moldova).

Scandinavian Peninsula

Jutland Peninsula

Iberian Peninsula

Italian Peninsula

Balkan Peninsula

Islands

Mountain Chains

Rivers

Natural Resources

Coal Iron ore Both are needed for an industrialized

economy 33% of Europe’s land is suitable for

agriculture Timber Oil and Natural Gas

Climate and Vegetation

Marine West Coast – Much of Europe (northern Spain across most of France, Germany and to western Poland, British Isles)

North Atlantic Drift – current of warm water flowing near Europe’s west coast. Warms westerly winds that elevate temperature and carry moisture.

Climate

Humid Continental – Sweden, Finland, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, and Hungary

Much of Europe has suffered from deforestation

Climate

Mediterranean Climate (Southern Spain and France through Italy to Greece and other parts of the Balkan Peninsula)

Mistral winds – cold, dry wind from the north

Sirocco winds, hot steady south wind that blows from North Africa across the Mediterranean Sea into southern Europe

Mediterranean Crops

Human-Environment InteractionDutch Inventions

Dikes – earthen banks that hold back the sea

Polder – land in the Netherlands that is drained and dried

40% of the Netherlands was once under sea

Seaworks – structures used to control the sea’s destructive impact on human life (include dikes and terpen)

Terpen – high earthen platforms that provide places to go for safety during floods and high tides

Dutch Inventions

Zuider Zee – an arm of theNorth Sea and is now a fresh-water lake.Now called Ijsselmeer – Land around the lake wasDrained, creating several Polders that added hundreds of square miles of land to the Netherlands

Canals in Venice

Venice and Netherlands

Swampy land,Flooding

Canal, pilings

Drained polders

City is sinking

Created new land

Venice

Netherlands

Deforestation – Centuries Old Problem

Acid Rain

How does this photo convey the devastation caused by acid rain?