Scandinavian mountains highest point. Mountain system Scandinavian mountains
The Scandinavian Mountains, Scandinavian Highlands, are a mountain system located in Norway (western part and northern tip) and Sweden (eastern part). The highest altitudes are located on Norwegian territory in the southern third of the highlands: the city of Galhöpiggen (2469 m) on the Jotunheimen plateau; The neighboring peak on the same plateau is approximately the same height; to the southwest there is an altitude of 2405 m, to the south - 2340 m.
The highest peaks of the Scandinavian mountains of the Swedish part of the highlands are located much to the north (Kebnekaise, 2123 m; Sarek, 2090 m).
Most of the highlands belong to the area of Caledonian folding and are formed by Late Proterozoic igneous and sedimentary-metamorphic rocks, Paleozoic (mainly Cambrian, Ordovician and Silurian) volcanogenic and sedimentary strata (of the latter - shales, sandstones, limestones, etc.). Intrusions are abundant.
The tectonic structure of the Scandinavian mountains is characterized by complex folding and cover structures, which are directed towards the Baltic crystalline shield, which bounds the highlands from the southeast. Its elevated edge participates in the structure of the Scandinavian mountains in the south and east. Mountain uplifts arose in the Devonian. After this they leveled off, but in the Neogene and Quaternary periods they began to slowly rise again. The uplift was accompanied by faults in the earth's crust. Fault dislocations play a major role in the formation of the highland relief.
During the Quaternary period, the highlands served as the center of continental glaciation in Europe. The thickness of the glacier in some places exceeded 1500 m. Its excavation activity led to the processing of raised peneplanated surfaces - fjelds (fjells). These surfaces are in some places crowned with groups of pointed peaks - nunataks. It was believed that all nunataks rose above the ice sheet, but it was found that in some cases they were covered with ice and are not true nunataks everywhere. Glacial gouging is also responsible for the appearance of smoothed rocky hills - sheep's foreheads and numerous hollows with lakes and swamps. Continental glaciation, as it decreased, turned into valley glaciation on both slopes of the highlands, fed by the preserved glaciers of the watershed surfaces.
The strongly dissected western coast serves as a sharp contrast to the fiels of the watershed part of the highlands. There are numerous trough valleys here, carved out by glaciers that descended from the near-water surfaces towards the coast. They pass into the upper reaches of narrow sea bays - fjords - with high and steep rocky shores. Their directions and outlines are predetermined by tectonic faults. These are also trough valleys processed by glaciers, which are flooded (in the lower parts) by sea waters.
In the main valleys, fluvioglacial and alluvial terraces are observed, tied to the levels of marine terraces. In areas of limestone distribution, various karst phenomena occur. The leading role in modern relief formation belongs to erosion, and in the upper tier of the Scandinavian mountains - the activity of snow (including avalanches) and ice.
The eastern slope of the highland is lower than the western one. Glaciers also descended along it from the watershed fiels, producing numerous trough valleys and hollows occupied by lakes, which are elongated in the direction of ice movement to the east-southeast and southeast. A tectonic ledge facing the Baltic crystalline shield and the Baltic Sea separates the highlands here from the Norland plateau (up to 800 m a.s.l.), which occupies the elevated outskirts of this shield. Its step is inclined to the east-southeast, it is a denudation plain with lakes, moraine hills and remnants of hard crystalline rocks - monadnocks - processed by the continental glacier.
In the north, the Scandinavian mountains turn into the low (300-500 m) hilly Finnmarken plateau with individual peaks exceeding 1000 m (Chuokkarassa, 1139 m).
The western and eastern slopes of the highlands are sharply different in climatic terms. The climate of the Norwegian coastal slopes is humid marine, very mild, with abnormally warm winters due to the bringing of warm air from the ocean by cyclones and the warming influence of the North Atlantic Current.
In the north, along the outer shores of the Lofoten Islands, in January the temperature anomaly compared to the average latitude temperature is +24° and is the largest in the world. The climate of the eastern slopes of the highlands is less humid and more continental, with significant contrasts between summer and winter.
Due to the large meridional extent of the Scandinavian Mountains, significant differences are created between south and north. Naturally, there is a great difference in the climate of the coast and the eastern foot of the mountains, on the one hand, and the strip of harsh highlands, on the other.
The average temperature in January on the Atlantic coast is from +2° in the south to -4° in the north, in July - from 14 to 8°, respectively - summer is therefore cool.
In the upper Scandinavian mountain tier, the average temperature in January drops to 16°, in July - to +8, +6°. Heavy precipitation (over 1000 mm, in the upper tier of mountains up to 4000 mm/year or more) falls in greater quantities in the autumn-winter half of the year and in smaller quantities in the spring-summer. On the eastern slope of the highlands, precipitation falls less than 1000 mm/year, in the rain shadow region behind the highest elevations of the Norwegian part of the mountains - less than 500 mm/year, in the north, in Finnmark - 300-800 mm.
The humid maritime climate and the dissected surface of the Scandinavian Highlands determine the significant density of the river network. The rivers are mostly short, but relatively high-water, with rapids and waterfalls. They are fed by rain and snow, partly by glaciers. There are numerous lakes, the basins of which are predominantly of tectonic-glacial origin.
About 3060 sq. km of the highland surface is covered with ice sheets, as well as mountain-valley glaciers. There are hanging, cirque and sweeping glaciers. Ice sheets and ice caps cover high mountain plateaus - fjelds. We refer to such glaciers as the Scandinavian type, while Norwegian authors call this type “Norwegian”. In terms of the area of modern glaciation, the Scandinavian mountains rank first among the mountains of mainland Europe. Permafrost, even in the north, in Lapland and Finnmark, is rare, apparently only in some swamps.
Despite the favorable climate, the flora and fauna of the Scandinavian Highlands, like the entire Scandinavian Peninsula, is poor in species. This is due to the fact that during the last glaciation (about 25 thousand years ago) almost their entire area was covered with ice. Plant and animal organisms relatively recently populated the ice-free territory and, moreover, found here edaphic conditions that were homogeneous over large areas.
On the slopes of the Scandinavian mountains up to an absolute height of 1000-1100 m in the south and 300-600 m in the north there is a mountain forest altitude zone. In the south, it includes belts with tracts of broad-leaved (beech, oak) and mixed forests on brown soils and soddy-podzolic soils (distributed to altitudes of 300-400 m). These forests include areas of northern European deciduous and mixed forests.
In the south, above the mixed ones, there are coniferous forests on mountain-podzolic soils, to the north, starting from sea level and from the eastern foot of the Scandinavian mountains. These forests are combined with the boreal coniferous region. They are dominated by spruce and pine, with a common admixture of birch and aspen. Although in coastal areas with a marine (oceanic) climate woody vegetation, as a rule, does not penetrate far to the north, in Scandinavia a positive winter temperature anomaly and sufficient summer heat allow pine forests to spread above 70° N. w. In the north, pine is mixed with birch, and in some places, on sand and pebble terraces, pure pine forests grow.
In the polar coastal regions of the Scandinavian mountains, conifers disappear, but the hardy mountain birch reaches tree size in the northernmost valleys. It covers the slopes of the fjords in the Narvik area and further north, thanks to which the northern fjords have a welcoming, rather than harsh, appearance in summer. To the south of this birch, open forests and crooked forests are formed at the upper border of the forest (on dwarf dry-peaty podzols), occupying a vertical distance of 150-200 m. On the western slopes of the highlands, due to high humidity, the forest alternates with tracts of heather and peat bogs or is replaced by them.
Above the forest line, Scandinavian mountain tundras with moss-lichen and herbaceous-shrub vegetation (with willow bushes, dwarf birch, crowberry) and meadows used as summer pastures are common. Above them are bare rocks, devoid of higher vegetation, and then glaciers.
In the Subarctic and Arctic (northern coast) regions, even with low amounts of summer precipitation, melting snow for a long time provides plants with moisture, but the growing season is short. It is dominated by low-growing shrubs, mainly dwarf birch, as well as meadow and moss-lichen tundra and forest-tundra (with rare birch small forest) vegetation.
The forests of the Scandinavian mountains are inhabited by elk, wolf, fox, lynx, hare, etc., in the south - red deer and roe deer. Lemmings and arctic foxes are typical for the tundra; reindeer graze on the Finnmarken plateau and to the south of it and in the mountain tundras. The range of altitudinal zonation of the landscapes of the Scandinavian mountains includes primarily a mountain-forest zone with belts of broad-leaved and mixed (only in the south), coniferous, birch forests and birch crooked forests. Higher up there are zones of mountain meadow-tundra (with belts of shrub tundra and rocky meadow-tundra) and meadows; then rocky, nival-glacial.
In the Scandinavian mountains, ores of iron, copper, zinc, lead, titanium, molybdenum, niobium, and pyrite are mined. There are large reserves of hydroelectric power, which operate numerous, mostly small, hydroelectric power plants, especially in southern Norway. Forest resources are utilized in the wood processing and pulp and paper industries.
The area of arable land relative to the entire area of the mountains is negligible, but mountain meadows are used as pastures, and mountain tundras are used as reindeer pastures. The population is dominated by Norwegians and Swedes; among the national minorities in the north live the Sami (Laplanders) and the Kvens (Norwegian Finns). The population density is extremely low.
Nature and its development by man
The Scandinavian Mountains stretch 1,800 km across the Scandinavian Peninsula (Northern Europe) from northeast to southwest along the western and northwestern sides of the peninsula, bordering the Scandinavian coast. Their southern border runs along 58 s. w. In the north, the mountains turn into the Finnmarken plateau, lying at 69° N. w. The eastern part of the Scandinavian mountains is adjacent to the Norland Plateau. In the distant past, the outlines of this mountain range partly resembled the outlines of the Alps with their steep, sharp ridges, but over time they acquired a different appearance, more characteristic of typical ancient mountains.
Today's Scandinavian mountains no longer form a continuous chain of ridges. The former ridge broke up into a myriad of plateaus (fjelds), rising a little more than 1000 m above sea level.
These are elongated plateaus, gentle in the east and steep in the west, where they abruptly end off the coast of the Norwegian Sea. They are very wide and, the further east you go, the more they are destroyed by rivers and weathering.
The highest point in the Scandinavian mountains is called Galhöppigen (2469 m). This mountain belongs to the Jotunheimen massif, which lies in the southern part of the system.
Thanks to powerful movements of the earth's crust blocks, significant relief depressions, designated as tectonic valleys, were formed in Scandinavia.
They cut through the mountainous country, thereby dividing the fields into separate groups - mountain ranges. Sea waters invade the boundaries of some valleys along which rivers have laid their channels, forming the famous fjords. These are sea bays that extend far into the land, surrounded by very steep rocky cliffs, sometimes 100 m in height. Sarek National Park (Lapland) is located in the Scandinavian Mountains within Sweden, founded in 1909. The area of this park is 1940 km², on its territory there are more than 90 mountains above 1800 m, the highest of which is called Sarektyakka (2089 m). The picturesque area is decorated with 100 mountain glaciers and rivers with many waterfalls.
Origin and age
The Scandinavian mountains arose during the Caledonian era of mountain building (this is the name of the time of active geological processes throughout the globe from 420 to 390 million years ago). The earth's crust then rose as never before and formed incredible mountain ranges. For the first time, elevations appeared on the planet, significantly exceeding 2000 m above sea level.
Extensive ancient glaciation of the Scandinavian mountains, associated in the past with continental ice, led to the fact that local soils froze to a significant depth, reaching in places several tens of meters.
These were the Scandinavian mountains, united into a mighty mountain system with the ridges of Great Britain, Spitsbergen and North America, since all this land was at that time enclosed in a single massif.
During the last ice age, the Scandinavian mountains served as the center of European glaciation, from here gigantic tongues of ice descended onto the plains of France, Germany and Russia. Scandinavia was covered by an ice sheet with a thickness of over 3000 m. The glacier continuously destroyed the Scandinavian mountains: it significantly lowered them and cut them into U-shaped valleys. Granite fragments of mountains in the form of boulders were transported by ice tongues over vast distances. These boulders can be found even in the Moscow region.
(Sweden) Scandinavian mountains Scandinavian mountains
Sweden Sweden
Finland Finland
Scandinavian mountains- mountain system Scandinavian Peninsula. The length is about 1700 km, width up to 1320 km. The western slopes approach directly North Sea, forming steep banks, famous Norwegian fjords. The eastern slopes gradually decline and turn into flat spaces in the territory Sweden. The northeastern part of the Scandinavian mountains, stretching from Trondheimsfjord to the plateau Finnmarksvidda, has a name Hjolen, or Kjölen ( norwegian Kjölen - literally " keel »).
The height of the mountains is relatively small. Highest point - Mt. Galhöpiggen (norwegian Galdhøpiggen), 2469 m, located in southern Norway. The highest point in Sweden is Mt. Kebnekaise (Swede. Kebnekaise), 2111 m. The relief is smoothed by the activity of the ancients glaciers. Modern glaciers of the Scandinavian mountains are the largest on the mainland Europe.
The humid maritime climate and the ruggedness of the surface determine the presence of a large number rivers, most of which are short, with a strong current, not covered with ice even in winter. A large number of lakes.
The mountain slopes are covered taiga forests, shrubs, peat bogs, as well as mountain tundra And meadows. There are ore deposits gland , copper , titanium , pyrites. The Scandinavian mountains were founded about 480 million years ago. Caledonian folding. The formation of the Scandinavian mountains occurred around the end Ordovician-average Silure. Ocean Iapetus, which formed in the early Cambrian and separating North America (Lawrence) And Europe (Baltic), began to expand, and pushing Laurentia and Baltic away, at the beginning Ordovician it reached a width of 2000 km, but then it began to narrow again as Laurentia, Greenland and the Baltic began to get closer. Eventually, about 440 million years ago, Baltica pushed into Greenland, which pushed into Laurentia. At this time, huge masses of sand, pebbles, and the remains of volcanic island arcs begin to compress with colossal forces, raising the first peaks of the Scandinavian mountains.
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Notes
Literature
- Eramov R. A. Scandinavian mountains // Great Soviet Encyclopedia. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. 1969-1978.
- Scandinavian Mountains // Dictionary of modern geographical names. - Ekaterinburg: U-Factoria. Under the general editorship of academician. V. M. Kotlyakova. 2006.
- Scandinavian mountains // Geography. Modern illustrated encyclopedia. - M.: Rosman. Edited by prof. A. P. Gorkina. 2006.
- Scandinavian Mountains // USE: Universal Dictionary-Encyclopedia (Ukrainian)
Links
- Askheim, Svein.(Norwegian) . Store norske leksikon(January 29, 2014). Retrieved April 15, 2014.
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An excerpt characterizing the Scandinavian mountains
“He loves me, I know,” Pierre shouted angrily.“No, listen,” said Prince Andrei, stopping him by the hand. – Do you know what situation I’m in? I need to tell everything to someone.
“Well, well, say, I’m very glad,” said Pierre, and indeed his face changed, the wrinkles smoothed out, and he joyfully listened to Prince Andrei. Prince Andrei seemed and was a completely different, new person. Where was his melancholy, his contempt for life, his disappointment? Pierre was the only person to whom he dared to speak; but he expressed to him everything that was in his soul. Either he easily and boldly made plans for a long future, talked about how he could not sacrifice his happiness for the whim of his father, how he would force his father to agree to this marriage and love her or do without his consent, then he was surprised how something strange, alien, independent of him, influenced by the feeling that possessed him.
“I wouldn’t believe anyone who told me that I could love like that,” said Prince Andrei. “This is not at all the feeling that I had before.” The whole world is divided for me into two halves: one - she and there is all the happiness of hope, light; the other half is everything where she is not there, there is all despondency and darkness...
“Darkness and gloom,” Pierre repeated, “yes, yes, I understand that.”
– I can’t help but love the world, it’s not my fault. And I'm very happy. You understand me? I know you're happy for me.
“Yes, yes,” Pierre confirmed, looking at his friend with tender and sad eyes. The brighter the fate of Prince Andrei seemed to him, the darker his own seemed.
To get married, the consent of the father was needed, and for this, the next day, Prince Andrei went to his father.
The father, with outward calm but inner anger, accepted his son's message. He could not understand that anyone would want to change life, to introduce something new into it, when life was already ending for him. “If only they would let me live the way I want, and then we would do what we wanted,” the old man said to himself. With his son, however, he used the diplomacy that he used on important occasions. Taking a calm tone, he discussed the whole matter.
Firstly, the marriage was not brilliant in terms of kinship, wealth and nobility. Secondly, Prince Andrei was not in his first youth and was in poor health (the old man was especially careful about this), and she was very young. Thirdly, there was a son whom it was a pity to give to the girl. Fourthly, finally,” said the father, looking mockingly at his son, “I ask you, postpone the matter for a year, go abroad, get treatment, find, as you want, a German for Prince Nikolai, and then, if it’s love, passion, stubbornness, whatever you want, so great, then get married.
“And this is my last word, you know, my last...” the prince finished in a tone that showed that nothing would force him to change his decision.
Prince Andrei clearly saw that the old man hoped that the feeling of him or his future bride would not withstand the test of the year, or that he himself, the old prince, would die by this time, and decided to fulfill his father’s will: to propose and postpone the wedding for a year.
Three weeks after his last evening with the Rostovs, Prince Andrei returned to St. Petersburg.
The next day after her explanation with her mother, Natasha waited the whole day for Bolkonsky, but he did not come. The next, third day the same thing happened. Pierre also did not come, and Natasha, not knowing that Prince Andrei had gone to his father, could not explain his absence.
Three weeks passed like this. Natasha did not want to go anywhere and, like a shadow, idle and sad, she walked from room to room, cried secretly from everyone in the evening and did not appear to her mother in the evenings. She was constantly blushing and irritated. It seemed to her that everyone knew about her disappointment, laughed and felt sorry for her. With all the strength of her inner grief, this vain grief intensified her misfortune.
Northern Europe, with a total length of 1700 km and a width of 1300 km, is called the Scandinavian Mountains. The western part of the mountain slopes approaches to form sheer and steep shores, peninsulas, capes, and islands. The steepness and inaccessibility of the mountains is proven by 178 tunnels laid on the Oslo-Bergen railway section (Norway).
The eastern part gradually decreases and passes into the Norland plateau. The Scandinavian mountains are a highland that consists of individual elongated ridges, plateaus, and intramountain depressions. In many places there are leveled surfaces intersected by deep fjords and valleys. The modern relief was formed due to water erosion, the activity of ice, wind and snow.
The mountain range forms numerous fjords, which were formed under the influence of glacial movement. These are sea bays, cutting deeply into the landmass, with high rocky shores. As a rule, the depth of Scandinavian fjords reaches one kilometer.
It is believed that the Scandinavian mountains are low. The maximum peak - Mount Galhepiggen with a height of 2469 m - is located on the southern slope of the mountain system, while the highest point in Sweden - Mount Kebnekaise (2111 m) - is located in the northern part of the peninsula. The Scandinavian mountain system is covered with glaciers, which are considered the largest in the European part. The climate in these parts is moderate, only in the far north is it subarctic.
On the territory of Sweden, in the Scandinavian Mountains (in Lapland), there is a large National Nature Reserve "Sarek". It was founded in 1909 and covers an area of 194,000 hectares. This area contains over 90 mountain peaks with a height of 1800 meters. Among them are mountain rivers, waterfalls, gorges and 100 glaciers.
The Scandinavian mountains are penetrated by a dense river network, which is formed by the predominance of wet and intensely dissected mountain ranges. Rivers, as a rule, are short and deep, filled with waterfalls and countless rapids. Their maximum filling begins in the spring, mainly from melting snow and heavy rains, less often from glaciers. Due to the high speed of the current, ice does not form on the rivers in winter. These mountains in Europe have a large number of lakes of tectonic-glacial origin.
Where the height of the mountains reaches 1000 meters in the southern part and up to 500 meters in the northern part, the slopes are covered with coniferous taiga forests. The forest area of the western slopes alternates with shrub vegetation and peat bogs. Pine and spruce trees predominate in these areas. Beyond these heights, a belt of birch woodland stretches for another 200 m, which gives way to a zone of mountain tundra. Local residents use this area for grazing livestock in the summer.
In the eastern part of the mountains, broad-leaved trees predominate and the fauna of the Scandinavian mountains is represented by hares, foxes, moose, squirrels, roe deer, and seals. Among the birds in the forests there are hazel grouse, black grouse, wood grouse, and on the sea coast and lakes - waterfowl. There are many commercial fish in sea and river waters.
The Scandinavian mountains are rich in deposits of pyrite, copper, iron, lead and titanium ores. In the North Sea, in the shelf part, there are oil reserves.
