Sweden Relief

The territory of Sweden is made up, for the most part, of the western section of the great Baltic shield (see Scandinavia), a block of primitive rocks (gneiss, granites and leptites), which, reduced to a penepian already in the Precambric period, underwent in the Tertiary there are various tectonic disturbances, accompanied by a general uplift. This was followed in the Quaternary by a complex glaciation, which gave the topography of the town its characteristic features.

Therefore, although the soil is made up for the most part of archaic rocks, which extend over almost all of Sweden from the northern border to Scania, in which the primitive rocks are covered by Mesozoic soils, the morphology varies, and according to this one can distinguish four natural regions of very different size, then subdivided into smaller regional units: Norrland, central Sweden, Småland and Scania. For Sweden 1997, please check aristmarketing.com.

The Norrland is formed by three longitudinal bands, approximately parallel which, like terraces, decrease in height from the border with Norway to the Gulf of Bothnia. To the west it extends for a width of about one hundred km. a mountainous region, in which almost flat or rounded summits alternate with acute peaks with alpine characteristics; the latter where more resistant rocks emerge (gabbro). The height of these peaks, covered with ice and completely devoid of vegetation, decreases from N. to Sweden, from 2123 m. in Kebnekaise at 1589 m. in Mars Fjäll; a succession of lakes, formed as a result of morainic barriers, extends at the foot of the mountainous region, engraved by numerous valley furrows, roughly parallel to each other and all having a NO.-SE direction. The next strip, whose altitude is between 400 and 500 m., embraces a vast plateau of gneiss, granite, porphyrites and leptites, rugged by numerous hills and rounded bumps; a thick morainic mantle covers the most ancient rocks of the plateau, engraved by wide valleys that open between endless coniferous forests. The impermeability of the soil and the slight slope, hindering the rapid drainage of water, favor the formation of peat bogs which today occupy about 30% of the entire surface.

A coastal alluvial plain, which borders the archaic lands along the Gulf of Bothnia, constitutes the third band, the width of which varies from 50 to 150 km. Of recent origin – it is in fact due to postglacial uplifts – this belt represents the most populated area of ​​Norrland, both because the more fertile soil lends itself to cultivation, and because of the influence exerted by the sea.

A vast transitional region, in which the topographical elements of Norrland still recur, separates the latter from the plains of central Sweden; to NO. of this the soil, scattered with ponds and peat bogs, is covered by extensive forests; NE. on the other hand, the marine deposits of the coastal strip of Norrland continue, which also cover the ancient rocky base here. Of particular interest for its rich mineral deposits is the Bergslag, the terminal region of the Norrland plateau, interposed between the gneissic soils of Värmland and the Uppland granites, and made up of leptites containing iron minerals and also gold, silver, copper, etc..

Central Sweden, proper, is a vast flat region, whose current topographical characteristics are due to the numerous fractures and dislocations, following which vast depressed areas were formed, occupied by the large lake basins of Mälar and Hjälmar to the NE. of the Vätter in the center and of the Väner in the NW. and many smaller lakes.

The Smaland, which occupies the southern part of Sweden, is made up of a plateau of archaic rocks, engraved and dismembered by lake basins and valley furrows that radiate from the center of the plateau in every direction. This plateau is limited to the south by Scania, made up of Mesozoic soils, in which weak undulations of more ancient soils (gneiss and granite) alternate with marine deposits.

Although of very limited extension (11,303 sq km), Scania has an exceptional importance in the economic life of the country, both for the fertile plains favorable to agriculture, for the mild climate, and for the position that makes it a region transit between the rest of Sweden and the next Central European states.