Geographical position of Great Britain. Climate. Mineral resources

Plan

Introduction                                                                                                                                                          3

1.      Geographical position of Great Britain                                                                                    4

2.      Climate                                                                                                                                                          9

3.      Mineral resources                                                                                                                              15

Conclusion                                                                                                                                                          21

Literature                                                                                                                                                          23

Introduction

I have decided to write about natural features of Great Britain, because as for me, it is very beautiful and picturesque country. By natural features of a country we usually mean several things: its geographical position, climate, surface divisions, rivers and lakes, soils and mineral resources. In almost all of these respects Great Britain is more or less fortunate.

The British Isles lie close to the economically developed continental Europe, in the centre of trade routes to America. Due to its insular position, Britain has no suffered so much from the two world wars as other European countries. The British Isles lie neither too far south. That is why the weather in Britain can not be too hot or too cold.

We can often hear Englishmen saying “We do not have any climate. We just have the weather”. It means the weather in Great Britain is very changeable; there may be all kinds of weather during the day. I really love British climate. It is often criticized, but in fact, it is very good – no extremes of heat or cold, enough rainfall distributed throughout the year, no typhoons or hurricanes that may destroy the crops.

As far as surface is concerned, Great Britain is less fortunate, than with water and winds: highlands, uplands and hills occupy the northern, central and western parts of the island. This factor has both possible and negative consequences for the countries economy. The mountains soils are bad for wheat and barley buy enough for grass, which is necessary for dairy farming. Besides, these regions have a lot of mineral resources for industries and manufacturing. The rivers are short but usually have enough water to grow vegetables, and the lakes are deep enough to enjoy boating and yachting.

The Great Britain is one of the world's most industrialized countries. It has few mineral resources. Coal and oil are the most important of them.

Geographical position of Great Britain

The British Isles are situated on the continental shelf off the north-west coast of Europe and comprise a group of islands lying between latitudes 50° and 61° North and longitudes 1°45' East and 8°10' West, the prime meridian of 0° passing through the old observatory of Greenwich (London). The total area of the British Isles is 322,246 square km.

Britain, formally known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, constitutes the greater part of the islands. It comprises the mainland of England, Wales and Scotland (Great Britain) and the northern part of Ireland (Northern Ireland). The southern part of Ireland, the second largest island of the group, is the Irish Republic or Eire. All in all there are over 5,000 islands in the system of the British Isles.

The United Kingdom's area is some 244,100 square km, of which about 99 per cent is land and the remainder inland water. This is nearly the same size as the Federal Republic of Germany, New Zealand and half the size of France. From south to north it stretches for over 900 km, and is just under 500 km across in the widest part and 60 km in the narrowest. Due to the numerous bays and inlets no place in Britain is as much as 120 km from the sea coast line. The combined population of the British Isles — 59.5 million people (including that of the Republic of Ireland) makes the islands one of the most densely populated parts of the earth's surface and the United Kingdom, at least, one of the most densely populated countries.

With over 57 million people, Great Britain ranks about fourteenth in the world in terms of population. The high density of population (about 233 per square kilometre) sets a problem of land use and of livelihood. Within the British Isles it implies a pressure on land, a pressure reflected both in competition for space and in intensive agriculture. The problems of supporting such a large population on such a small land area are obvious. In fact, this became possible with the emergence of Britain as the-world's first industrial nation during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It was during this period that Britain acquired vast oversea colonial territories, ruthlessly robbed and exploited them. This enabled her to become the wealthiest nation on earth.

Off the north-western coast of Great Britain there is a group of islands known as the Hebrides. They are divided into the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the groups of islands, separated from each other by the Sea of the Hebrides and the Little Minch. These groups of islands represent the higher unsubmerged portions of a dissected block broadly similar to the main highland mass.

Separated from the mainland by the stormy seven-mile wide Pentland Firth there are the Orkney Islands, comprising about a hundred islands, though only a third are inhabited, by about 19,500 people. Most of the people are engaged in dairy- and poultry farming; bacon, cheese and eggs are exported to Central Scotland.

Situated about 70 miles north of the Orkneys are the Shetland Islands, which provide thin, infertile soils suitable only for rough pasture. The total population is about 18,000. The Shetland farmers are essentially crofters, but during the summer months they are actively engaged in herring-fishing. Apart from fish, the only exports from the islands are Shetland ponies and lace knitted from the wool of local sheep. Lerwick, the chief settlement, contains about 5,000 people, but the Shetlands are far from prosperous, and the population is still steadily decreasing.

In the middle of the Irish Sea there is the Isle of Man (571 square km). The island is administered by its own Manx Parliament and has a population of about 50,000 chiefly engaged in farming, fishing and tourist trade. The only settle­ment of any size is the holiday resort of Douglas (23,000). Another important island in the Irish Sea is Anglesey, situated off the north coast of Wales. Anglesey contains only 52,000 people, and more of the working population is now engaged in industry than in fishing and agriculture. This is due partly to an increase in the tourist trade and partly to the introduction of several new industries, for example, the construction and eventual operation of the nuclear power station at Wylfa.

The Isle of Wight is in the English Channel. It is diamond-shaped, 40 km from west to east, and about half as much from north to south. The Isle of Wight lies across the southern end of Southampton Water, and is separated from the mainland by the Solent. With its sunny beaches and pleasant varied countryside, the island forms one of the South Coast's most important tourist resorts. It is linked to London by ferry and rail services. The decline of light and other industries has presented serious problems of employment for the island, and at present the population is being reduced by migration to the mainland, where the situation is far from being better.

Off the extreme south-western coast of Great Britain there is a tiny group of the Isles of Scilly.

The Channel Islands lie to the south-west on the French side of the English Channel. They form an archipelago, detached by shallow waters from the Cotentin peninsula in Normandy. As part of the Duchy of Normandy, they have been attached to the English Crown since the Norman Conquest   (1066).

The chief islands of the group are Jersey and Guernsey. Jersey (76,000) is the largest and most populous island; it occupies 60 per cent of the total area and has almost 60 per cent of the population.

There are no high mountains in Great Britain. In the north the Cheviots (the Cheviot Hills) separate England from Scotland, the Pennines stretch down North England almost along its middle, the Cambrian mountains occupy the greater part of Wales and the Highlands of Scotland are the tallest of the British mountains. Ben Nevis, the tallest peak of the Highlands, is only 1,343 m high. There is very little flat country except in the region known as East Anglia. Most of the rivers flow into the North Sea. The Thames is the deepest and the longest of the British rivers, it is over 300 km long. Some of the British greatest ports are situated in the estuaries of the Thames, Mersey, Tyne, Clyde and Bristol Avon.

The British Isles are of the continental origin. Situated off the north-west coast of Europe, they once formed part of that continent. They only became islands when they were separated from it. The separation took place thousands of years, ago, after the last Ice Age. When the ice melted, the level of the oceans rose and drowned the low-lying coastlands round the continents. This was when the English Channel, which was formerly a westward extension of the North European Plain, became a shallow stretch of sea. It was a change which greatly affected the history as well as the geography of these islands.

From the European continent the British Isles are separated by the English Channel and the North Sea. The English Channel, in its widest part in the west is 220 km wide, and in the narrowest, what is called the Strait of Dover, only 32 km. The average depth of the Channel is 60 m, and that of the strait of Dover — 30 m. Here the two opposite coasts of England and France come so near, that on a clear day the cliffs of each side can be quite well seen from the opposite shore. There were a number of schemes in the past how to connect the two coasts.

In the west the British Isles are washed by the Atlantic Ocean, in the east — by the North Sea, the average depth of which is 95 m. The two largest islands of the British Archipelago, Great Britain and Ireland, are separated from each other by the Irish Sea and the two straits, the North Channel — 20 km wide, and St George's Channel — over 100 km wide. The distance between the ports of Liverpool and Dublin is 230 km.

The advantageous geographical position of Great Britain created favorable conditions for the development of shipping, trade and the economy as a whole.

The North Atlantic Current, the drift of warm water which reaches the islands from across the Atlantic, spreads out over the shelf magnifying its ameliorating effect on the British Isles. This rather shallow skin of surface water, light because it is warm, is driven north-eastward across the ocean by the westerly wilds. It forms part of the Gulf Stream system, which begins where Florida Current pours vast quantities of remarkably warm water into the circulation of the North Atlantic. In its journey across that ocean the water loses part of its heat, but retains enough to keep the ocean surface west of the British Isles warm in winter.

The British Isles are known for their greatly indented coastline. Therefore there are many bays and harbours, peninsulas and capes on the coast, which were formed as a result of the raising and submerging of the land surface in the process of the geological development of the islands. The indentity pattern of the island of Great Britain greatly resembles that of the Norwegian coast ab­ounding in numerous deep and winding, like rivers, fiords. Due to its extreme indentity the coastline of Great Britain despite its relatively modest size, is 8,000 km long.

There is a wide network of rivers in the British Isles, though generally short in length and navigable but in their lower reaches, especially during high tides. Mild   maritime climate keeps   them   free of   ice throughout the winter months. Most of the rivers flow in the eastward direction since the west coast is mountainous.

The most important rivers are the Severn, flowing from the Cumbrian Mountains in Wales into the Bristol Channel, the Tames, flowing across the plains of south-eastern England and emptying into the North Sea, the Tyne and the Trent, flowing from the eastern slopes of the Pennines to the North Sea, The Mersey, flowing down the western slopes of the Pennines and emptying into the Irish Sea at Liverpool, and the Clyde in Scotland, which flows west across the Southern Uplands and on which the port Glasgow is situated.

CLIMATE AND WEATHER

Climatic conditions have not been constant throughout the ages. They have changed slightly and subtly since first man arrived in Britain. Prehistoric cultivators arrived in Britain about 3000 B.C. when Europe was experiencing a post-glacial climate optimum with temperatures 2-3°C higher than now. A gradual deterioration followed which became abrupt about 500 B.C.? with the setting in of a cool rainy period, though possibly with mild winters. Between about 1550 and 1850 occurred the so-called Little Ice Age but thereafter, until about 1930s or 1940s, the climate improved.

The overall experience of the years since about 1940 tends to suggest that the climate is starting to deteriorate again. The tendency is to a greater frequency of cooler, wetter summers and colder winters.

The position of the British Isles within latitudes 50° to 61CN is a basic factor in determining the main characteristics of the climate. Within the limits of the general climatic type — maritime, temperate with no dry season and with summers only moderately warm — there is, however, room for considerable variation between one region and another.

The climate of any place results from the interaction of a number of determining factors, of which the most important are latitude, distance from the sea, relief and the direction of the prevailing winds. These factors must be distinguished from the actual features of the climate, such as temperature, precipitation, wind, sunshine, fog, the humidity of the air.

Britain has a generally mild and temperate climate, which is dominated by marine influences and is rainy and equable. Britain's climate is much milder than that in any other country in the same latitudes. This is due partly to the presence of the North Atlantic Drift which begins as the Gulf Stream, in the Gulf of Mexico, crosses the Atlantic Ocean, and so reaches the shores of Europe as a warm current, and partly to the fact that north-west Europe lies in a predominantly westerly wind-belt. This means that not only do marine influences warm the land in winter and cool it in summer, but also that the winds blowing over the Atlantic have a similar effect and at the same time carry large amounts of moistu­re which is deposited over the land as rain. Britain's climate is generally one of mild winters and cool summers, with rain throughout the year, although there are considerable regional changes.

Latitudes determine the main characteristics of the climate. Temperature, the most important climatic element, depends not only on the angle at which the sun's rays strike the earth's surface, but also on the duration of daylight. The greater the angle of the sun above the horizon, the greater is the heat received and the length of the period between sunrise and sunset. The length of day at London ranges from 16 hours 35 minutes on 21 June to 7 hours 50 minutes on 21 December.

The sea greatly modifies the climate of the British Isles, for their relatively small area and the indented nature of the coastline allow maritime influences to penetrate well inland. The sea, whose waters have a higher specific heat than the rocks of the land surface, warms up more slowly, but also cools down more slowly than does the land. Consequently, in summer the land tends to be warmer than the sea, and in winter the converse is true. This moderating effect of the sea, is, in fact. the cause of the relatively small seasonal contrasts experienced in Britain.

The prevailing winds in the British Isles are westerlies. They are extremely moist, as a result of their long passage over the warm waters of the North Atlantic. On their arrival over Britain, the winds are forced upwards, and as a result large-scale condensation occurs, clouds form and precipitation follows, especially over the mountainous areas.

Relief is the most important factor controlling the distribution of temperature and precipitation within Britain. The actual temperatures experienced in the hilly and mountainous parts are considerably lower than those in the lowlands. The effect of relief on precipitation is even more striking. Average annual rainfall in Britain is about 1,100 mm. But the geographical distribution of rainfall is largely de­termined by topography, the mountainous areas of the west and north having far more rainfall than the lowlands of the south and east. The western Scottish High­lands, the Lake District, the Welsh uplands and parts of Devon and Cornwall receive more than 2,000 ram of rainfall each year. The greatest annual rainfall recorded in Britain was 6,527 mm at Sprinkling Tarn (Cumbria) in 1954. Much of this precipitation takes the form of snow, and on some of the highest summits ol the north a layer of snow may persist for several months of the year.

In contrast, the eastern lowlands, lying in a rain-shadow area, are much drier and usually receive little precipitation. Much of East Anglia has a rainfall of less than 700 mm each year, and snow falls on only 15 to 18 days on the average. The lowest annual rainfall was recorded at Margate (Kent) in 1921 (236 mm).

Rainfall is fairly well distributed throughout the year, but, on average, March to June are the driest months and October to January the wettest.

Ireland is in rather a different category, for here the rain-bearing winds have not been deprived of their moisture, and, although low-lying, much of the Irish plain receives up to 1,200 mm of rainfall per year, usually in the form of steady and prolonged drizzle. Snow, on the other hand, is rare, owing to the warming effects of the North Atlantic Drift.

Because of the North Atlantic Drift and the predominantly maritime air masses that effect the British Isles, the range in temperature throughout the year is never very great'.* The annual mean temperature in England and Wales is about 10 °C, in Scotland and Northern Ireland about 9 °C. The mean January temperature for Lon­don is 4 °C, and the mean July temperature 17 °C.

Near sea level in the west the mean annual temperature ranges from 8 °C in the Hebrides to 11 °C in the extreme south-west of England. July and August are the warmest months of the year on average and January and February the coldest. The mean summer temperatures throughout Britain increase from north to south.

The mean monthly temperature in the extreme north (the Shetlands) ranges from 3 "C during the winter (December, January and February) to 12 °C during the summer (June, July and August). The corresponding figures for the Isle of Wight, in the extreme south, are 5 °C and 16 °C.

During a normal summer the temperature may occasionally rise above 30 °C in the south. The highest shade temperature ever recorded in Britain was about 37 °G in August 1911 in Northamptonshire, Surrey and Kent. Minimum tempera­ture of—10 °C may occur on a still, clear winter's night in inland area. Lower temperatures are rare. The lowest temperature (—27.2 °C) was recorded at Braemar (the Grampians)   in February 1895 and January 1982.

In direct contrast with climate, in which short-term variations disappear with the calculation of averages, the weather of the British Isles is extremely variable. Not only is it liable to day-to-day changes — some whole seasons are markedly wet, markedly dry, unusually cold, or unusually warm.

Spring is normally Britain's driest season, even though April is by tradition showery. Cold weather usually lasts no later than mid-April, and there are frequently some very warm days during the second half of the month. By late spring daytime temperatures rise considerably, and the thermometer may even reach 21— 24 °C over a wide area.

June is the brightest month of the year for Britain in general. Rainfall tends to increase during July and August, partly because Atlantic depressions come nearer to the coast during these months and partly also because air, as it becomes warmed, is capable of holding more moisture. Late summer is often noted for very warm weather, and this may continue into September.

North and north-west winds often bring heavy falls of snow to north Britain during late October and November, but they are usually short-lived.

Continental air sometimes reaches the British Isles in summer as a warm, dry air-stream, but it is more frequently experienced in winter when it crosses the North Sea and brings bitter weather to eastern and inland districts of Great Britain.

In fine, still weather there is occasionally haze in summer and mist and fog in winter.

With its mild climate, a wide variety of relief and soils Britain once had a diverse pattern of vegetation. The original natural vegetation consisted of forest, fen and marsh in the wet lowlands, especially where the drainage was poor, and shrub, heath and moorland on the uplands where soils were thin. In the lowland areas the oak forest must have been the natural vegetation.

Apart from oak other trees of the wooded lowlands were ash, maple, elm and hazel. Today only a few scattered areas of extensive woodland remain, such as the New Forest in Hampshire and Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, which owe their survival largely to the fact that in the Middle Ages they were set aside as 'Royal Forests' for hunting. The greatest density of woodland occurs in the north and the east of Scotland, in some parts of south-east England and on the Welsh border. Throughout most of England and parts of Wales and Scotland, where temperatures are high enough to permit trees to complete their annual cycle of growth between spring and autumn, deciduous varieties (such as oak, birch, beech and ash) are more numerous. In the north and on higher ground in the west these are replaced by coniferous species, pine, fir and spruce.

Most of Britain is agricultural land of which about one-third is arable, and the rest pasture and meadow. Areas of permanent grassland are widespread in practically all parts of Britain except East Anglia, where arable farming is predo­minant, and in the highest parts of Scotland and Wales. These pastures form the chief grazing lands on which cattle and sheep are reared and fattened.