EUROPE'S RELIEF

1. THE EUROPEAN RELIEF.

Europe is a small continent (less than a 5% of Earth's surface), limited by:

1. In the north and the west the Antarctic and Atlantic Oceans.
2. In the South the Mediterranean Sea.

There are three main features in the European relief

• The Great European Plain:

1. It extends across most of the continent. 

2. It is relatively narrow in the west (Belgium), but wider in the east, covering most of European Russia.

3. It is crossed by great rivers: the Rhine, Vistula, Volga, Don, Dnieper.

• The plateaus and old mountain ranges. Old massifs that are low and smooth due to erosion.

The most important are: 

1. the Scandinavian Mountains (Scandinavian Peninsula)
2. the Grampian Mountains (North of Great Britain).
3. the Spain's Meseta (Iberian Peninsula)
4. the French Massif Central (center and south of France)
5.  the Ural Mountains (Russia). 

• The young mountain ranges.

A series of young and high mountain ranges located in the south of Europe:

1.  The Pyrenees, located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Bay of Biscay.
2. The Alps , located between the Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea.  The peaks are higher in the western sector.
3. The Apeninnes, that cross the Italian Peninsula from North to South.
4. The Carpathians, located in Easten Europe.
5. The Balkans, in the Balkan Peninsula.
6. The Caucasus, located between the Blak and Caspian Seas.

2. RIVERS AND LAKES OF EUROPE.

We can distinguish several hydrographic basins in Europe according to the ocean or sea in which the rivers flow into:

• Artic rivers, such as the Dvina.
• Atlantic rivers, such as the Elbe, the Rhine, the Thames, the Seine, the Loire, the Garonne and the Tagus.
• Mediterranean rivers: the Rhone, the Tiber and the Po.
• Black Sea rivers: the Danube, the Dnieper and the Don.
• Caspian Sea rivers: the Ural and the Volga.