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Finland Landform Regions
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Figure 8. Topography and Drainage
Many countries of the world can be divided into
distinct
geographic regions, in each of which some physical
characteristic
is dominant, almost to the exclusion of others. In
Finland, the
same physical characteristics are common to each of the
four
geographic regions into which the country is divided
(see
fig. 8). Regional differences in Finland lie, therefore, in
subtle
combinations of physical qualities. In archipelago
Finland, rock
and water are dominant. Coastal Finland consists of broad
clay
plains where agriculture plays a leading role. The
interior lake
district supports extensive forests. Upland Finland is
covered by
Arctic scrub. Nonetheless, each of these regions contains
elements of the others. For instance, patches of
agriculture
extend far northward along some rivers in Lapland, and in
southern Finland a substantial bogland, the Suomenselka,
is
sometimes referred to as Satakunta Lapland because it has
the
character of Arctic tundra.
Archipelago Finland, consisting of thousands of islands
and
skerries, extends from the southwestern coast out into the
Baltic
Sea. It includes the strategically significant Aland
Islands,
positioned at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia. After
World
War I, both Finland and Sweden laid claim to the islands,
which
are culturally more Swedish than Finnish. For strategic
reasons,
however, the League of Nations awarded the Aland Islands
to
Finland in 1921
(see Finnish Security Policy Between the Wars
, ch. 1). A principal reason for this decision was that,
during the
winter, the islands are physically linked to Finland by
the
frozen waters of the sea and are hence essential for the
country's defense. This myriad of forest-covered and bare
bedrock
islands was formed and continues to be formed by the
process of
uplift following the last glaciation.
The rest of the country is also still emerging from the
sea.
The weight of the continental glaciers depressed the land
over
which they moved, and even now, a hundred centuries after
their
recession, Finland is rising up from this great load
through the
process of isostatic rebound. In the south and the
southwest,
this process is occurring slowly, at a rate of twenty-five
to
thirty centimeters a century. Farther north in the
Ostrobothnia
area, uplift is more rapid, it amounts to eighty or ninety
centimeters a century. The process also means that Finland
is
growing about seven square kilometers yearly as land
emerges from
the sea.
Coastal Finland consists of broad clay plains extending
from
the coast inland, for no more than 100 kilometers. These
plains
slope southward from the morainic Salpausselka Ridges in
southern
Finland. Along the Gulf of Bothnia coast, the plains slope
southwest from upland areas. The land of coastal Finland
is used
for agriculture and dairy farming.
The interior lake district is the largest geographic
region,
and it is perhaps what most foreigners think of when they
imagine
Finland. The district is bounded to the south by the
Salpausselka
Ridges. Behind the ridges extend networks of thousands of
lakes
separated by hilly forested countryside. This landscape
continues
to the east and extends into the Soviet Union. As a
consequence,
there is no natural border between the two countries.
Because no
set definition of what constitutes a lake and no
procedures for
counting the number of lakes exist, it has been impossible
to
ascertain exactly how many lakes the region has. There
are,
however, at least 55,000 lakes that are 200 or more meters
wide.
The largest is Lake Saimaa, which, with a surface area of
more
than 4,400 square kilometers, is the fifth largest lake in
Europe. The deepest lake has a depth of only 100 meters;
the
depth of the average lake is 7 meters. Because they are
shallow,
these many lakes contain only slightly more water than
Finland's
annual rainfall. The hilly, forest-covered landscape of
the lake
plateau is dominated by drumlins and by long sinuous
eskers, both
glacial remnants.
Upland Finland extends beyond the Arctic Circle. The
extreme
north of this region is known as Lapland. The highest
points in
upland Finland reach an elevation of about 1,000 meters,
and they
are found in the Kilpisjarvi area of the Scandinavian Keel
Ridge.
In the southern upland region the hills are undulating,
while in
the north they are rugged. Much of upland Finland is not
mountainous, but consists of bogs.
Finland's longest and most impressive rivers are in the
north. The Kemijoki has the largest network of
tributaries.
Farther south the Oulujoki drains the beginning of the
north
country. Most of the streams flow to the Gulf of Bothnia,
but
there is a broad stretch of land in the north and
northeast that
is drained by rivers flowing north across Norway and
northeast
across the Soviet Union to the Arctic Ocean.
Data as of December 1988
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