|
|
Norway: The Land an the Sea, Relief, Climate, Natural Regions
By Ellsworth Huntington, Samuel Van Valkenburg
The Land and the Sea. --Norway is Europe's most inhospitable land, 73 per cent being unproductive and 24 per cent in forest, leaving only 3 per cent of cultivated land and grass. This fact is developed fully, and the attraction of the warm, wellprotected coastal waters, resulting in fishing and seafaring, has been contrasted with the unfavorable condition of the land itself. Fishing is still an important occupation, engaging directly one sixth of the men and providing one third of the nation's exports. Closely associated with this is the fact that the Norwegian fleet, comprising between 4 and 5 per cent of the world's shipping, and relatively ranking first, still carries on the worldwide voyaging that is its Viking heritage. In the face of these more dramatic pursuits, it is easy to forget that the foundation of Norway's economic life is after all the land, that agriculture and forestry continue to be the mainstay of the people, engaging more than one third of them. Furthermore, later years have seen a great development of manufacturing, based partly on the raw products of forestry, mining, and fishing, and also on nature's great gift to Norway, its abundant waterpower.
Relief. --Norway is a country of high mountains and plateaus. The present Scandinavian mountains represent such a weak section where an old peneplained mountain region was uplifted, warped, and again exposed to the erosion of ice and water.
As a whole the mountain system of Scandinavia represents a huge mass of land, high on the west and dipping toward the east, and bordered there by the syncline of the Baltic Sea. The western edge of the mountains breaks off rather abruptly, facing the Atlantic; the eastern flanks slope gently down to the Baltic. Norway includes the greater part of the mountain system proper and its western border, but of the eastern slope only the southeastern part, the region around Oslo.
The uplifted mountain block shows the marked effects of erosion. During the Ice Age it was the source and center of the great Seandinavian glacier, and even now the high parts are still so protected by ice that the pre-glacial, uplifted peneplain remains more or less intact. So the mountain forms are smooth and rounded, like the Hardanger Viden and Dovre Field; and even the highest summits, such as the Galdhöppigen, which attains 8,500 feet, are by no means outstanding features of the landscape. Only in a few places like Jotunheimen do the peaks display steep Alpine forms due to the erosion of moving ice and perhaps to peculiarities of rock formation.
The sharp western edge of Norway was broken by great fissures during the period of uplift. The rivers, followed later by ice, have remodeled and widened these into the famous Norwegian fiords some of which, like the Hardanger and Sogne fiords, extend far inland. Thousands of rocky islands border the coast, offshoots of the mountainous mainland. The change that has taken place in the relationship of land and sea may be mainly the result of a sinking of the land under the pressure of a vast ice mass, but at least part of it must have been caused by a rising of the sea in consequence of the addition of water from the melting of continental glaciers. At present Scandinavia is rising very gradually, in belated response to the loss of its thick burden of ice, for the earth's crust reacts very slowly as we measure time. Successive terraces along the coast show wave-cut benches where former shores have been uplifted.
In the south the mountains do not come so near to the ocean as in the most westerly part of Norway. There the precipitous cliffs give place to lowlands of typically glaciated character, with rounded rocky hills and intervening marshlands. In central Norway the Trondheim (Trondhjem, pronounced Tronyem) depression makes it easy to pass from Norway to Sweden. This is not merely a depression in the axis of the mountain range. It is a place where erosion has been especially effective because a softer limestone is exposed, thus producing a physiographic feature marking the northern limit of the southern plateau. Farther north the mountain system has more nearly the character of a single continuous chain, breaking steeply toward the west and dipping moderately eastward. The main divide is in places very near the Atlantic Coast.
The Oslo region is entirely different. The mountains slope gently to the east, and broad river valleys, glaciated depressions, and lakes characterize the landscape. The ice diverted several rivers which once flowed eastward into what is now Sweden, and Oslo became the center of a great number of valleys which radiate in all directions. The boundary between Norway and Sweden is not physiographic, and the same sort of topography is seen on both sides of the frontier. In a physiographic sense, the Oslo region may almost be called Swedish rather than Norwegian.
The soils of Norway are generally poor, for the glaciers caused denudation much more widely than deposition. However, the coastal zone of south and southeast Norway contains some marine deposits of relatively high fertility, laid down at the time of high sealevel immediately following the Ice Age. The Oslo and Trondheim regions also enjoy soils better than the average, on account of the presence of eruptive rocks west of Oslo and of limestone in the Trondheim depression.
Climate. --Climate plays so great a part in Norwegian life that it will be discussed here in some detail. Norway stretches from south to north through more than 30° of latitude, a circumstance which would naturally lead one to expect great differences between the northern and southern extremities. But the temperature maps show that this is not the case. More important than mere latitude are the prevalent west winds and the presence of the Atlantic Drift. These not only prevent freezing along the west coast clear to the North Cape, but also increase the supply of moisture.
Because of all this, the west coast of Norway, particularly in winter, has an extremely marine climate. Freeholmen, the most northerly climatic station of the country, located far inside the Arctic Circle, has an average temperature of 26° F. during February, which is there the coldest month because the sea causes a lag in the seasons. Skomvar, a station on the Lofoten Islands, records 31° F. South of Trondheim the average winter temperature remains above the freezing point, as for instance at Aalesund, in latitude 62° N., showing 35° for February. In the mountains back from the coast, lower temperatures of course prevail; but in comparison with other regions of the same latitude and elevation they have very mild winters. Storlien (2,000 feet) on the gap between Trondheim and Sweden has an average February temperature of 16° F., showing the inflow of Atlantic air through the break in the mountains, but the eastern slopes are colder in proportion to their altitude. Oslo averages 25° F. in February, still showing the marine influence.
In summer the oceanic influence is slight but is still apparent. Thus the July temperature of Bergen on the west coast averages 60° F., while that of Oslo, a little farther south, and east of the mountains, is 65° F. The difference in temperature due to latitude is very slight, for the length of the summer days in the far north helps to maintain an average of 55° F. for July even within the Arctic Circle.
The rainfall of Norway (A36) is influenced by the same factors which affect temperature. Along the west coast, precipitation is very heavy, especially in the southwestern section ( Bergen, 87 inches), but even in the far north it exceeds 25 inches. The distribution is fairly uniform throughout the year in the north, but in the south there is a minimum in early summer, and a winter maximum. In the mountains the precipitation diminishes, especially on the eastern slopes. Oslo in the eastern lowland has about 24 inches, less than a third of the rainfall at Bergen.
In addition to temperature and precipitation, the amount of sunshine is of great importance. Following the comparative darkness of winter comes summer with long days; in the northern section the "midnight sun" may be seen in the sky throughout the whole day for several weeks, and even in the south the summer nights are very short, and crops are thereby considerably favored.
Natural Regions. --Starting in the north, region X consists of a mountain range with a rocky, island-bordered coast. Lack of level land and unfavorable climate limit agriculture to a little hay, barley, and potatoes around the coastal villages. Only in the southern part of northern Norway, where the longitudinal valleys of the Trondhelm region lie some distance inland from the coast, does agriculture become at all important. Most of northern Norway, however, is mountain upland, where glaciers at some points extend down to the sea. Still the coastal population is comparatively dense, if the high latitude and lack of arable land are taken into consideration.
Fishing is the chief economic activity of northern Norway. Off this coast lie the winter fishing grounds for cod. The winter fishing begins first in the Lofoten section and continues there until March. Later a second but less important fishing period opens farther north in Finmarken. Cod are exported partly as "stock" fish, dried on poles, partly as "clip" fish, dried on rocks. Cod-liver oil is extracted and shipped away in great quantities. Its production varies widely from year to year according to size of the fish and the oily content of the livers.
Source: Europe
|
|
This website is created and designed by Atlantis International, 2006
This is an unofficial website with educational purpose. All pictures, and trademarks are the property of their respective owners and may not be reproduced for any reason whatsoever. If proper notation of owned material is not given please notify us so we can make adjustments. No copyright infringement is intended.
