4.2.1 Finland Geography, Climate, Vegetation
Description
This article is from the Nordic countries FAQ, by Antti Lahelma and Johan Olofsson, with numerous contributions by others.
4.2.1 Finland Geography, Climate, Vegetation
Finland (Finnish: Suomi) is the fifth largest country in Europe,
excluding the Russian federation. Roughly 1/3 of the country lies
north of the Arctic Circle. Finland shares a common border in the
north with Norway, in the east a long border (1,269 km) with Russia,
on the south it is bordered by the Gulf of Finland, and on the west by
the Gulf of Bothnia and Sweden. Most of Finland is lowland, but in the
far northwest (the "arm" of Finland) some mountains rise to over
1000m. Most of Finland is made of ancient granite bedrock, which has
been shaped and fractured by numerous ice ages, the marks of which can
be seen e.g in the complex lake system, the equally complex
archipelagos and the huge boulders scattered all over the country.
Finland has three main physical regions: the coastal lowlands, the
inland lake system, and the northern uplands. The coastal lowlands
extend along coasts of the Gulfs of Finland and Bothnia, off which lie
thousands of rocky islands; the principal archipelagos are the Åland
(in Finnish: Ahvenanmaa) Islands and the archipelago of Turku. The
lake district is an interior plateau of southern central, heavily
forested and studded with lakes, swamps and bogs. The northern upland,
much of which lies north of the Arctic Circle, has rather poor soils
and is the most sparsely populated region of Finland. In the far
north, arctic forests and swamps eventually change to tundra.
Finland's climate shows both maritime and continental influences.
Surrounding seas cool the climate on the coast in spring but on the
other hand warm it up in the autumn.The climate becomes more
continental, i.e more extreme, the further east and north one goes.
The furtherst north, however, has a rather marine climate because of
the influence of the Arctic Ocean. The summer lasts two to four
months, the growing season four to six.
The tourist cliche of Finland as "the country of thousands of lakes"
has some basis; in one count, a number of 187,880 islands was reached
(but it all depends on what counts as a lake). They are often
connected by rivers and canals to form large lake-systems. Finland's
largest lake, Saimaa, is in fact a system of more than a hundred
interconnected smaller lakes. Finland's rivers are short and shallow,
the longest being located in the north. Finland has about 30,000
coastal islands, of which the especially the southwestern archipelago
is known for its beauty.
The country is situated entirely within the northern zone of
coniferous forests. Forests cover about 65% of the total area (45%
pines, 37% spruces, 15%). Oaks, lindens, elms, and ashes appear mostly
in the southwest corner. Among the large wild animals are e.g ear,
elk, deer, lynx, wolverine and wolf.
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