Misplaced Pages

Nordic Seas

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

The Nordic Seas are located north of Iceland and south of Svalbard . They have also been defined as the region located north of the Greenland-Scotland Ridge and south of the Fram Strait-Spitsbergen-Norway intersection. Known to connect the North Pacific and the North Atlantic waters, this region is also known as having some of the densest waters, creating the densest region found in the North Atlantic Deep Water . The deepest waters of the Arctic Ocean are connected to the worlds other oceans through Nordic Seas and Fram Strait . There are three seas within the Nordic Sea: Greenland Sea , Norwegian Sea , and Iceland Sea . The Nordic Seas only make up about 0.75% of the world's oceans. This region is known as having diverse features in such a small topographic area, such as the mid oceanic ridge systems. Some locations have shallow shelves, while others have deep slopes and basins. This region, because of the atmosphere-ocean transfer of energy and gases, has varying seasonal climate. During the winter, sea ice is formed in the western and northern regions of the Nordic Seas, whereas during the summer months, the majority of the region remains free of ice.

#532467

135-463: Several water masses are found interacting in the Nordic Sea. These water masses are present due to subduction , deep convective mixing, surface/frontal mixing, and entrainment of water from low and high latitudes. Interaction from multiple water sources can lead to varying conditions. New primary production is higher in this region, usually exceeding regenerated primary production. New production

270-599: A loanword from the North Germanic languages ; " Skaði " is the jötunn stepmother of Freyr and Freyja in Norse mythology . It has been suggested that Skaði to some extent is modelled on a Sámi woman. The name for Skaði's father Þjazi is known in Sámi as Čáhci , "the waterman"; and her son with Odin, Sæmingr , can be interpreted as a descendant of Saam , the Sámi population. Older joik texts give evidence of

405-505: A reflexive verb . The lower plate itself is the subject. It subducts, in the sense of retreat, or removes itself, and while doing so, is the "subducting plate". Moreover, the word slab is specifically attached to the "subducting plate", even though in English the upper plate is just as much of a slab. The upper plate is left hanging, so to speak. To express it geology must switch to a different verb, typically to override . The upper plate,

540-467: A subduction zone , and its surface expression is known as an arc-trench complex . The process of subduction has created most of the Earth's continental crust. Rates of subduction are typically measured in centimeters per year, with rates of convergence as high as 11 cm/year. Subduction is possible because the cold and rigid oceanic lithosphere is slightly denser than the underlying asthenosphere ,

675-611: A brief but disastrous war between Denmark and Prussia (supported by Austria). Schleswig-Holstein was conquered by Prussia and after Prussia's success in the Franco-Prussian War a Prussian-led German Empire was created and a new power -balance in the Baltic region was established. The Scandinavian Monetary Union , established in 1873, lasted until World War I . The term Scandinavia (sometimes specified in English as Continental Scandinavia or mainland Scandinavia )

810-406: A few km for young lithosphere created at mid-ocean ridges to around 100 km (62 mi) for the oldest oceanic lithosphere. Continental lithosphere is up to 200 km (120 mi) thick. The lithosphere is relatively cold and rigid compared with the underlying asthenosphere , and so tectonic plates move as solid bodies atop the asthenosphere. Individual plates often include both regions of

945-460: A larger portion of Earth's crust to deform in a more brittle fashion than it would in a normal geothermal gradient setting. Because earthquakes can occur only when a rock is deforming in a brittle fashion, subduction zones can cause large earthquakes. If such a quake causes rapid deformation of the sea floor, there is potential for tsunamis . The largest tsunami ever recorded happened due to a mega-thrust earthquake on December 26, 2004 . The earthquake

1080-457: A minimum estimate of how far the continent has subducted. The results show at least a minimum of 229 kilometers of subduction of the northern Australian continental plate. Another example may be the continued northward motion of India, which is subducting beneath Asia. The collision between the two continents initiated around 50 my ago, but is still active. Oceanic-Oceanic plate subduction zones comprise roughly 40% of all subduction zone margins on

1215-483: A modern and more inclusive demonym . In the ethnic or cultural sense the term Scandinavian traditionally refers to speakers of Scandinavian languages , who are mainly descendants of the peoples historically known as Norsemen , but also to some extent of immigrants and others who have been assimilated into that culture and language. In this sense the term refers primarily to native Danes , Norwegians and Swedes as well as descendants of Scandinavian settlers such as

1350-469: A point of no return. Sections of crustal or intraoceanic arc crust greater than 15 km (9.3 mi) in thickness or oceanic plateau greater than 30 km (19 mi) in thickness can disrupt subduction. However, island arcs subducted end-on may cause only local disruption, while an arc arriving parallel to the zone can shut it down. This has happened with the Ontong Java Plateau and

1485-593: A result of each sea having separate water mass structures and circulation patterns. The Greenland Sea produces dense waters because of its high salinity and cooler temperatures from winter cooling. Higher salinity is present as a result of the Greenland Sea's close proximity to the salinity inflow that occurs from the Atlantic Ocean . Another dense water source comes from the Arctic waters that also flow into

SECTION 10

#1732773211533

1620-670: A salinity of approximately 34.88 psu. Depths are around 800 meters. This intermediate water is a salinity minimum layer in the Nordic Seas, which is unique in that is lies below a salinity maximum layer, the Atlantic Water. The third intermediate layer is called the upper Polar Deep Water. This water mass comes through the Fram Strait and is found in the East Greenland Current . This intermediate water has

1755-458: A shallow angle, the overriding plate develops a belt of deformation characterized by crustal thickening, mountain building , and metamorphism . Subduction at a steeper angle is characterized by the formation of back-arc basins . According to the theory of plate tectonics , the Earth's lithosphere , its rigid outer shell, is broken into sixteen larger tectonic plates and several smaller plates. These plates are in slow motion, due mostly to

1890-629: A temperature of -0.5 °C and a salinity of 34.85-34.9 psu. The three deep waters consist of the Greenland Sea Deep Water, Norwegian Sea Deep Water, and the Arctic Ocean Deep Water. The Greenland Sea Deep Water has a temperature of approximately -1.8 °C and a salinity of 34.895 psu. This water mass is formed by deep convection that occurs intermittently in the Greenland gyre . The Arctic Ocean Deep Water

2025-583: A visit to Sweden, Andersen became a supporter of early political Scandinavism. In a letter describing the poem to a friend, he wrote: "All at once I understood how related the Swedes, the Danes and the Norwegians are, and with this feeling I wrote the poem immediately after my return: 'We are one people, we are called Scandinavians! ' ". The influence of Scandinavism as a Scandinavist political movement peaked in

2160-510: A zone of shortening and crustal thickening in which there may be extensive folding and thrust faulting . If the angle of subduction steepens or rolls back, the upper plate lithosphere will be put in tension instead, often producing a back-arc basin . The arc-trench complex is the surface expression of a much deeper structure. Though not directly accessible, the deeper portions can be studied using geophysics and geochemistry . Subduction zones are defined by an inclined zone of earthquakes ,

2295-418: Is "consumed", which happens the geological moment the lower plate slips under, even though it may persist for some time until its remelting and dissipation. In this conceptual model, plate is continually being used up. The identity of the subject, the consumer, or agent of consumption, is left unstated. Some sources accept this subject-object construct. Geology makes to subduct into an intransitive verb and

2430-760: Is 38.0 °C in Målilla (Sweden). The coldest temperature ever recorded is −52.6 °C in Vuoggatjålme , Arjeplog (Sweden). The coldest month was February 1985 in Vittangi (Sweden) with a mean of −27.2 °C. Southwesterly winds further warmed by foehn wind can give warm temperatures in narrow Norwegian fjords in winter. Tafjord has recorded 17.9 °C in January and Sunndal 18.9 °C in February. The words Scandinavia and Scania ( Skåne ,

2565-584: Is Finnish (usually from the 3rd grade), while for Finnish-speakers it is Swedish (usually from the 3rd, 5th or 7th grade). Finnish speakers constitute a language minority in Sweden and Norway. Meänkieli and Kven are Finnish dialects spoken in Swedish Lapland and Norwegian Lapland . The Sámi languages are indigenous minority languages in Scandinavia. They belong to their own branch of

2700-522: Is a phonotactic structure of alien origin. Although the term Scandinavia used by Pliny the Elder probably originated in the ancient Germanic languages, the modern form Scandinavia does not descend directly from the ancient Germanic term. Rather the word was brought into use in Europe by scholars borrowing the term from ancient sources like Pliny, and was used vaguely for Scania and the southern region of

2835-500: Is a subregion of Northern Europe , with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. Scandinavia most commonly refers to Denmark , Norway , and Sweden . It can sometimes also refer to the Scandinavian Peninsula (which excludes Denmark but includes a part of northern Finland ). In English usage, Scandinavia is sometimes used as a synonym for Nordic countries . Iceland and

SECTION 20

#1732773211533

2970-499: Is accreted to (scraped off) the continent, resulting in exotic terranes . The collision of this oceanic material causes crustal thickening and mountain-building. The accreted material is often referred to as an accretionary wedge or prism. These accretionary wedges can be associated with ophiolites (uplifted ocean crust consisting of sediments, pillow basalts, sheeted dykes, gabbro, and peridotite). Subduction may also cause orogeny without bringing in oceanic material that accretes to

3105-407: Is also due to the fact that that Swedish was the dominant language when Finland was part of Sweden. Finnish-speakers had to learn Swedish in order to advance to higher positions. Swedish spoken in today's Finland includes a lot of words that are borrowed from Finnish, whereas the written language remains closer to that of Sweden. Finland is officially bilingual, with Finnish and Swedish having mostly

3240-546: Is approximately 34.92 psu. This water mass has a higher salinity due to brine rejection in the Arctic Seas . The depth is around 1500 and 2000 meters. The Norwegian Sea Deep Water is a combination of the Arctic Ocean Deep Water and the Greenland Sea Deep Water. This water mass is found below 2000 meters. Because of the warmer temperatures from the North Atlantic Current, this water mass is ice-free during

3375-585: Is based on the degree of mutual comprehensibility between the languages in the two branches. The populations of the Scandinavian countries, with common Scandinavian roots in language, can—at least with some training—understand each other's standard languages as they appear in print and are heard on radio and television. The reason Danish, Swedish and the two official written versions of Norwegian ( Nynorsk and Bokmål ) are traditionally viewed as different languages, rather than dialects of one common language,

3510-554: Is because they have two official written standards, in addition to the habit of strongly holding on to local dialects. The people of Stockholm , Sweden and Copenhagen , Denmark have the greatest difficulty in understanding other Scandinavian languages. In the Faroe Islands and Iceland, learning Danish is mandatory. This causes Faroese people as well as Icelandic people to become bilingual in two very distinct North Germanic languages, making it relatively easy for them to understand

3645-496: Is characterized by low geothermal gradients and the associated formation of high-pressure low-temperature rocks such as eclogite and blueschist . Likewise, rock assemblages called ophiolites , associated with modern-style subduction, also indicate such conditions. Eclogite xenoliths found in the North China Craton provide evidence that modern-style subduction occurred at least as early as 1.8  Ga ago in

3780-398: Is currently banned by international agreement. Furthermore, plate subduction zones are associated with very large megathrust earthquakes , making the effects of using any specific site for disposal unpredictable and possibly adverse to the safety of long-term disposal. Scandinavia Nordic territories that are not part of Scandinavia: Chronological history Scandinavia

3915-559: Is different from usage in the Scandinavian languages themselves (which use Scandinavia in the narrow meaning), and by the fact that the question of whether a country belongs to Scandinavia is politicised. People from the Nordic world beyond Norway, Denmark and Sweden may be offended at being either included in or excluded from the category of "Scandinavia". Nordic countries is used unambiguously for Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland, including their associated territories Greenland,

4050-403: Is driven by the temperature difference between the slab and the surrounding asthenosphere, as the colder oceanic lithosphere is, on average, more dense. Sediments and some trapped water are carried downwards by the slab and recycled into the deep mantle. Earth is so far the only planet where subduction is known to occur, and subduction zones are its most important tectonic feature. Subduction

4185-444: Is fairly well understood, the process by which subduction is initiated remains a matter of discussion and continuing study. Subduction can begin spontaneously if the denser oceanic lithosphere can founder and sink beneath the adjacent oceanic or continental lithosphere through vertical forcing only; alternatively, existing plate motions can induce new subduction zones by horizontally forcing the oceanic lithosphere to rupture and sink into

Nordic Seas - Misplaced Pages Continue

4320-614: Is found behind the Aleutian Trench subduction zone in Alaska. Volcanoes that occur above subduction zones, such as Mount St. Helens , Mount Etna , and Mount Fuji , lie approximately one hundred kilometers from the trench in arcuate chains called volcanic arcs . Plutons, like Half Dome in Yosemite National Park, generally form 10–50 km below the volcanoes within the volcanic arcs and are only visible on

4455-416: Is higher in regions where water interacts with Atlantic Water, which has nutrient-rich waters. When looking at carbon flux from the atmosphere to the ocean, this region is considered one of the highest in the world's oceans. This region is also known as being one of the few bodies of water that take up large quantities of carbon dioxide yearly, ranging from 20 to 85 g C my, which is considered high in comparison

4590-477: Is more buoyant and as a result will rise into the lithosphere, where it forms large magma chambers called diapirs. Some of the magma will make it to the surface of the crust where it will form volcanoes and, if eruptive on earth's surface, will produce andesitic lava. Magma that remains in the lithosphere long enough will cool and form plutonic rocks such as diorite, granodiorite, and sometimes granite. The arc magmatism occurs one hundred to two hundred kilometers from

4725-411: Is old, goes down the subduction zone. As this happens, metamorphic reactions increase the density of the continental crustal rocks, which leads to less buoyancy. One study of the active Banda arc-continent collision claims that by unstacking the layers of rock that once covered the continental basement, but are now thrust over one another in the orogenic wedge, and measuring how long they are, can provide

4860-723: Is ongoing beneath part of the Andes , causing segmentation of the Andean Volcanic Belt into four zones. The flat-slab subduction in northern Peru and the Norte Chico region of Chile is believed to be the result of the subduction of two buoyant aseismic ridges, the Nazca Ridge and the Juan Fernández Ridge , respectively. Around Taitao Peninsula flat-slab subduction is attributed to the subduction of

4995-471: Is ordinarily used locally for Denmark, Norway and Sweden as a subset of the Nordic countries (known in Norwegian, Danish , and Swedish as Norden ; Finnish : Pohjoismaat , Icelandic : Norðurlöndin , Faroese : Norðurlond ). However, in English usage, the term Scandinavia is sometimes used as a synonym or near-synonym for what are known locally as Nordic countries . Usage in English

5130-663: Is still a hotly debated issue, both in scholarly discussions and in the nationalistic discourse of various European countries. The form Scadinavia as the original home of the Langobards appears in Paul the Deacon ' Historia Langobardorum , but in other versions of Historia Langobardorum appear the forms Scadan , Scandanan , Scadanan and Scatenauge . Frankish sources used Sconaowe and Aethelweard , an Anglo-Saxon historian, used Scani . In Beowulf ,

5265-674: Is that each is a well-established standard language in its respective country. Danish, Swedish and Norwegian have since medieval times been influenced to varying degrees by Middle Low German and standard German. That influence was due not only to proximity, but also to the rule of Denmark—and later Denmark-Norway—over the German-speaking region of Holstein, and to Sweden's close trade with the Hanseatic League . Norwegians are accustomed to variation and may perceive Danish and Swedish only as slightly more distant dialects. This

5400-404: Is the driving force behind plate tectonics , and without it, plate tectonics could not occur. Oceanic subduction zones are located along 55,000 km (34,000 mi) convergent plate margins, almost equal to the cumulative plate formation rate 60,000 km (37,000 mi) of mid-ocean ridges. Sea water seeps into oceanic lithosphere through fractures and pores, and reacts with minerals in

5535-528: The Cascade Volcanic Arc , that form along the coast of continents. Island arcs (intraoceanic or primitive arcs) are produced by the subduction of oceanic lithosphere beneath another oceanic lithosphere (ocean-ocean subduction) while continental arcs (Andean arcs) form during the subduction of oceanic lithosphere beneath a continental lithosphere (ocean-continent subduction). An example of a volcanic arc having both island and continental arc sections

Nordic Seas - Misplaced Pages Continue

5670-774: The Chile Rise , a spreading ridge . The Laramide Orogeny in the Rocky Mountains of the United States is attributed to flat-slab subduction. During this orogeny, a broad volcanic gap appeared at the southwestern margin of North America, and deformation occurred much farther inland; it was during this time that the basement -cored mountain ranges of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, and New Mexico came into being. The most massive subduction zone earthquakes, so-called "megaquakes", have been found to occur in flat-slab subduction zones. Although stable subduction

5805-518: The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages . A key ancient description of Scandinavia was provided by Pliny the Elder , though his mentions of Scatinavia and surrounding areas are not always easy to decipher. Writing in the capacity of a Roman admiral, he introduces the northern region by declaring to his Roman readers that there are 23 islands "Romanis armis cognitae" ("known to Roman arms") in this area. According to Pliny,

5940-486: The Faroe Islands are sometimes included in Scandinavia for their ethnolinguistic relations with Sweden, Norway and Denmark. While Finland differs from other Nordic countries in this respect, some authors call it Scandinavian due to its economic and cultural similarities. The geography of the region is varied, from the Norwegian fjords in the west and Scandinavian mountains covering parts of Norway and Sweden, to

6075-639: The Icelanders and the Faroese . The term is also used in this ethnic sense, to refer to the modern descendants of the Norse, in studies of linguistics and culture. Additionally the term Scandinavian is used demonymically to refer to all modern inhabitants or citizens of Scandinavian countries. Within Scandinavia the demonymic term primarily refers to inhabitants or citizens of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. In English usage inhabitants or citizens of Iceland,

6210-630: The Paleoproterozoic Era . The eclogite itself was produced by oceanic subduction during the assembly of supercontinents at about 1.9–2.0 Ga. Blueschist is a rock typical for present-day subduction settings. The absence of blueschist older than Neoproterozoic reflects more magnesium-rich compositions of Earth's oceanic crust during that period. These more magnesium-rich rocks metamorphose into greenschist at conditions when modern oceanic crust rocks metamorphose into blueschist. The ancient magnesium-rich rocks mean that Earth's mantle

6345-578: The Scandinavian Peninsula since prehistory—the North Germanic languages (Scandinavian languages) and the Uralic languages , Sámi and Finnish . Most people in Scandinavia today speak Scandinavian languages that evolved from Old Norse , originally spoken by ancient Germanic tribes in southern Scandinavia. The Continental Scandinavian languages— Danish , Norwegian and Swedish —form a dialect continuum and are considered mutually intelligible. The Insular Scandinavian languages— Faroese and Icelandic —on

6480-705: The Sámi people in northern Scandinavia. The North Germanic languages of Scandinavia are traditionally divided into an East Scandinavian branch (Danish and Swedish) and a West Scandinavian branch (Norwegian, Icelandic and Faroese), but because of changes appearing in the languages since 1600 the East Scandinavian and West Scandinavian branches are now usually reconfigured into Insular Scandinavian ( ö-nordisk / øy-nordisk ) featuring Icelandic and Faroese and Continental Scandinavian ( Skandinavisk ), comprising Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. The modern division

6615-431: The Uralic language family and are unrelated to the North Germanic languages other than by limited grammatical (particularly lexical) characteristics resulting from prolonged contact. Sámi is divided into several languages or dialects. Consonant gradation is a feature in both Finnish and northern Sámi dialects, but it is not present in southern Sámi, which is considered to have a different language history. According to

6750-491: The Vitiaz Trench . Subduction zones host a unique variety of rock types created by the high-pressure, low-temperature conditions a subducting slab encounters during its descent. The metamorphic conditions the slab passes through in this process create and destroy water bearing (hydrous) mineral phases, releasing water into the mantle. This water lowers the melting point of mantle rock, initiating melting. Understanding

6885-533: The Wadati–Benioff zone , that dips away from the trench and extends down below the volcanic arc to the 660-kilometer discontinuity . Subduction zone earthquakes occur at greater depths (up to 600 km (370 mi)) than elsewhere on Earth (typically less than 20 km (12 mi) depth); such deep earthquakes may be driven by deep phase transformations , thermal runaway , or dehydration embrittlement . Seismic tomography shows that some slabs can penetrate

SECTION 50

#1732773211533

7020-655: The carbon dioxide flux in the world's oceans. The Nordic Seas include the Greenland Sea, the Norwegian Sea, and the Iceland Sea. The Greenland and the Norwegian Sea are separately distinguished by Mohn's Ridge. The Greenland and Iceland Sea are separated by the Jan Mayen fracture zone, and the Norwegian and Iceland Seas have the Aegir Ridge between them. The Nordic Seas have varying and diverse features as

7155-406: The core–mantle boundary . Here the slabs are heated up by the ambient heat and are not detected anymore ~300 Myr after subduction. Orogeny is the process of mountain building. Subducting plates can lead to orogeny by bringing oceanic islands, oceanic plateaus, sediments and passive continental margins to convergent margins. The material often does not subduct with the rest of the plate but instead

7290-411: The lower mantle and sink clear to the core–mantle boundary . Here the residue of the slabs may eventually heat enough to rise back to the surface as mantle plumes . Subduction typically occurs at a moderately steep angle by the time it is beneath the volcanic arc. However, anomalous shallower angles of subduction are known to exist as well as some that are extremely steep. Flat-slab subduction

7425-416: The zeolite , prehnite-pumpellyite, blueschist , and eclogite facies stability zones of subducted oceanic crust. Zeolite and prehnite-pumpellyite facies assemblages may or may not be present, thus the onset of metamorphism may only be marked by blueschist facies conditions. Subducting slabs are composed of basaltic crust topped with pelagic sediments ; however, the pelagic sediments may be accreted onto

7560-466: The "clarissima" ("most famous") of the region's islands is Scatinavia , of unknown size. There live the Hilleviones . The belief that Scandinavia was an island became widespread among classical authors during the 1st century and dominated descriptions of Scandinavia in classical texts during the centuries that followed. Pliny begins his description of the route to Scatinavia by referring to

7695-506: The Alaskan crust. The concept of subduction would play a role in the development of the plate tectonics theory. First geologic attestations of the "subduct" words date to 1970, In ordinary English to subduct , or to subduce (from Latin subducere , "to lead away") are transitive verbs requiring a subject to perform an action on an object not itself, here the lower plate, which has then been subducted ("removed"). The geological term

7830-588: The Alps. The chemistry of the inclusions supports the existence of a carbon-rich fluid in that environment, and additional chemical measurements of lower pressure and temperature facies in the same tectonic complex support a model for carbon dissolution (rather than decarbonation) as a means of carbon transport. Elastic strain caused by plate convergence in subduction zones produces at least three types of earthquakes. These are deep earthquakes, megathrust earthquakes, and outer rise earthquakes. Deep earthquakes happen within

7965-633: The Atlantic Water and the Polar Surface Water. The Atlantic water is warm and has a higher salinity than the cooler, fresh Polar Surface Water. The difference in temperature and salinity between the two water masses plays a role in the climate of Scandinavia . The Atlantic Water enters the system with temperatures of 7 to 9 °C and a salinity of 35.2 psu. As the Atlantic water moves in the Norwegian Atlantic Current,

8100-523: The Faroe Islands and Finland are sometimes included as well. English general dictionaries often define the noun Scandinavian demonymically as meaning any inhabitant of Scandinavia (which might be narrowly conceived or broadly conceived). There is a certain ambiguity and political contestation as to which peoples should be referred to as Scandinavian in this broader sense. Sámi people who live in Norway and Sweden are generally included as Scandinavians in

8235-693: The Faroe Islands and the Åland Islands. The geological term Fennoscandia (sometimes Fennoscandinavia ) refers to the Fennoscandian Shield (or Baltic Shield ), which includes the Scandinavian Peninsula, Finland and Karelia , and excludes Denmark and other parts of the wider Nordic world. The terms Fennoscandia and Fennoscandinavia are sometimes used in a political sense to refer to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland. The term Scandinavian may be used with two principal meanings, in an ethnic or cultural sense and as

SECTION 60

#1732773211533

8370-530: The Finnish population. The coastal province of Ostrobothnia has a Swedish-speaking majority, whereas plenty of areas on this coastline are nearly unilingually Finnish, like the region of Satakunta . Åland, an autonomous province of Finland situated in the Baltic Sea between Finland and Sweden, are entirely Swedish-speaking. Children are taught the other official language at school: for Swedish-speakers this

8505-479: The Greenland Sea. The first intermediate water is a remnant of the Atlantic Water from the East Greenland Current . This water has been cooled and covered by the Polar Surface Water. The temperature is around 2 °C with a salinity of 35 psu. The second intermediate water is the Arctic Intermediate Water . This water is cooler and fresher. The temperature is around -1.5 to 3 °C and has

8640-554: The Greenland Sea. These water source mixtures are important because they play a role in the overflows that occur in the North Atlantic. The water that overflows from the Greenland ridge becomes the North Atlantic Deep Water dense water, even though this body of water does not make up the deep waters of the Nordic Sea. The circulation of the Nordic Seas is cyclonic . The Nordic Seas exchange water with

8775-619: The Jan Mayen Current on the eastern boundary of the Nordic Seas due to bathymetry. The Jan Mayen Current plays an important role in the dense water formation that occurs in the Greenland Sea. Continuing northward, the Norwegian Atlantic Current flows along the coast of Norway to the Arctic, eventually separating into the Barents Sea and the Spitsbergen Current . There are several gyre circulations that occur in

8910-706: The Nordic Seas. The subsurface waters leave the Nordic Seas through the south from overflows between Greenland and Scotland . The intermediate water leaves through the Denmark Straight and the Iceland Ridge. The densest overflow waters leave through the Faroe-Bank Channel . The water masses that encompass the Nordic Seas are always changing in response to the local variations that occur between atmosphere-ocean fluxes and convection of intermediate to deep water. The Nordic Seas are found between

9045-471: The North Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean , both having variable surface water conditions. The Nordic Seas are complex in the variety of water masses it contains: two surface waters, three intermediate waters, and three deep waters. Figure 3 shows the water mass circulations that occur in the Nordic Seas, displaying the surface waters, the intermediate waters, and the deep waters. The two surface waters are

9180-611: The North Atlantic in the upper ocean. Warm water from the North Atlantic enters the Nordic Seas from the east, specifically in the Norwegian Atlantic Current (part of the North Atlantic Current ). The western boundary of the Nordic Seas is the southward-flowing East Greenland Current . This current enters through the Fram Straight from the Arctic. This current is considered one of the main ways for Arctic sea ice to be exported. The East Greenland Current splits into

9315-569: The Russian Grand Duchy of Finland in 1809 and Norway ( de jure in union with Denmark since 1387, although de facto treated as a province) becoming independent in 1814, but thereafter swiftly forced to accept a personal union with Sweden. The dependent territories Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Greenland, historically part of Norway, remained with Denmark in accordance with the Treaty of Kiel . Sweden and Norway were thus united under

9450-502: The Swedish king Gustav I led Sweden to independence. It also saw numerous wars between the nations, which shaped the modern borders. The most recent union was the union between Sweden and Norway , which ended in 1905. In modern times the region has prospered, with the economies of the countries being amongst the strongest in Europe. Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and Finland all maintain welfare systems considered to be generous, with

9585-548: The Swedish monarch, but Finland's inclusion in the Russian Empire excluded any possibility for a political union between Finland and any of the other Nordic countries. The end of the Scandinavian political movement came when Denmark was denied the military support promised from Sweden and Norway to annex the (Danish) Duchy of Schleswig , which together with the (German) Duchy of Holstein had been in personal union with Denmark. The Second war of Schleswig followed in 1864,

9720-728: The Sámi Information Centre of the Sámi Parliament of Sweden , southern Sámi may have originated in an earlier migration from the south into the Scandinavian Peninsula. German is a recognized minority language in Denmark. Recent migrations has added even more languages. Apart from the Sámi languages and the languages of minority groups speaking a variant of the majority language of a neighboring state, Yiddish , Romani Chib/Romanes, Scandoromani and Karelian are amongst those protected in parts of Scandinavia under

9855-472: The asthenosphere. Both models can eventually yield self-sustaining subduction zones, as the oceanic crust is metamorphosed at great depth and becomes denser than the surrounding mantle rocks. The compilation of subduction zone initiation events back to 100 Ma suggests horizontally-forced subduction zone initiation for most modern subduction zones, which is supported by results from numerical models and geologic studies. Some analogue modeling shows, however,

9990-435: The continent, away from the trench, and has been described in western North America (i.e. Laramide orogeny, and currently in Alaska, South America, and East Asia. The processes described above allow subduction to continue while mountain building happens concurrently, which is in contrast to continent-continent collision orogeny, which often leads to the termination of subduction. Continents are pulled into subduction zones by

10125-506: The crust and mantle to form hydrous minerals (such as serpentine) that store water in their crystal structures. Water is transported into the deep mantle via hydrous minerals in subducting slabs. During subduction, a series of minerals in these slabs such as serpentine can be stable at different pressures within the slab geotherms, and may transport significant amount of water into the Earth's interior. As plates sink and heat up, released fluids can trigger seismicity and induce melting within

10260-630: The crust would be melted and recycled into the Earth's mantle . In 1964, George Plafker researched the Good Friday earthquake in Alaska . He concluded that the cause of the earthquake was a megathrust reaction in the Aleutian Trench , a result of the Alaskan continental crust overlapping the Pacific oceanic crust. This meant that the Pacific crust was being forced downward, or subducted , beneath

10395-597: The crust, megathrust earthquakes on the subduction interface near the trench, and outer rise earthquakes on the subducting lower plate as it bends near the trench. Anomalously deep events are a characteristic of subduction zones, which produce the deepest quakes on the planet. Earthquakes are generally restricted to the shallow, brittle parts of the crust, generally at depths of less than twenty kilometers. However, in subduction zones quakes occur at depths as great as 700 km (430 mi). These quakes define inclined zones of seismicity known as Wadati–Benioff zones which trace

10530-609: The crust, through hotspot magmatism or extensional rifting, would the crust be able to break from its continent and begin subduction. Subduction can continue as long as the oceanic lithosphere moves into the subduction zone. However, the arrival of buoyant continental lithosphere at a subduction zone can result in increased coupling at the trench and cause plate boundary reorganization. The arrival of continental crust results in continental collision or terrane accretion that may disrupt subduction. Continental crust can subduct to depths of 250 km (160 mi) where it can reach

10665-448: The degree of lower plate curvature of the subducting plate in great historical earthquakes such as the 2004 Sumatra-Andaman and the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, it was determined that the magnitude of earthquakes in subduction zones is inversely proportional to the angle of subduction near the trench, meaning that "the flatter the contact between the two plates, the more likely it is that mega-earthquakes will occur". Outer rise earthquakes on

10800-408: The demonymic sense; the Sámi of Finland may be included in English usage, but usually not in local usage; the Sámi of Russia are not included. However, the use of the term "Scandinavian" with reference to the Sámi is complicated by the historical attempts by Scandinavian majority peoples and governments in Norway and Sweden to assimilate the Sámi people into the Scandinavian culture and languages, making

10935-440: The descending slab. Nine of the ten largest earthquakes of the last 100 years were subduction zone megathrust earthquakes. These included the 1960 Great Chilean earthquake which at M 9.5 was the largest earthquake ever recorded, the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami , and the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami . The subduction of cold oceanic lithosphere into the mantle depresses the local geothermal gradient and causes

11070-455: The different regimes present in this setting. The models are as follows: In their 2019 study, Macdonald et al. proposed that arc-continent collision zones and the subsequent obduction of oceanic lithosphere was at least partially responsible for controlling global climate. Their model relies on arc-continent collision in tropical zones, where exposed ophiolites composed mainly of mafic material increase "global weatherability" and result in

11205-630: The economic and social policies of the countries being dubbed the " Nordic model ". The geography of Scandinavia is extremely varied. Notable are the Norwegian fjords , the Scandinavian Mountains covering much of Norway and parts of Sweden, the flat, low areas in Denmark and the archipelagos of Finland, Norway and Sweden. Finland and Sweden have many lakes and moraines , legacies of the ice age , which ended about ten millennia ago. The southern regions of Scandinavia, which are also

11340-546: The first Europeans to reach North America. These exploits saw the establishment of the North Sea Empire which comprised large parts of Scandinavia and Great Britain, though it was relatively short-lived. Scandinavia was eventually Christianized , and the coming centuries saw various unions of Scandinavian nations, most notably the Kalmar Union of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, which lasted for over 100 years until

11475-619: The forearc may include an accretionary wedge of sediments scraped off the subducting slab and accreted to the overriding plate. However, not all arc-trench complexes have an accretionary wedge. Accretionary arcs have a well-developed forearc basin behind the accretionary wedge, while the forearc basin is poorly developed in non-accretionary arcs. Beyond the forearc basin, volcanoes are found in long chains called volcanic arcs . The subducting basalt and sediment are normally rich in hydrous minerals and clays. Additionally, large quantities of water are introduced into cracks and fractures created as

11610-420: The forearc-hanging wall and not subducted. Most metamorphic phase transitions that occur within the subducting slab are prompted by the dehydration of hydrous mineral phases. The breakdown of hydrous mineral phases typically occurs at depths greater than 10 km. Each of these metamorphic facies is marked by the presence of a specific stable mineral assemblage, recording the metamorphic conditions undergone but

11745-644: The forms Scedenige and Scedeland are used while the Alfredian translation of Orosius and Wulfstan 's travel accounts used the Old English Sconeg . The earliest Sámi joik texts written down refer to the world as Skadesi-suolu in Northern Sámi and Skađsuâl in Skolt Sámi , meaning " Skaði 's island". Svennung considers the Sámi name to have been introduced as

11880-401: The goddess Skaði may have once been a personification of the geographical region of Scandinavia or associated with the underworld. Another possibility is that all or part of the segments of the name came from the pre-Germanic Mesolithic people inhabiting the region. In modernity, Scandinavia is a peninsula, but between approximately 10,300 and 9,500 years ago the southern part of Scandinavia

12015-408: The hot, ductile layer in the upper mantle . Once initiated, stable subduction is driven mostly by the negative buoyancy of the dense subducting lithosphere. The down-going slab sinks into the mantle largely under its own weight. Earthquakes are common along subduction zones, and fluids released by the subducting plate trigger volcanism in the overriding plate. If the subducting plate sinks at

12150-430: The idea of subduction initiation at passive margins is popular, there is no modern day example for this type of subduction nucleation. This is likely due to the strength of the oceanic or transitional crust at the continental passive margins, suggesting that if the crust did not break in its first 20 million years of life, it is unlikely to break in the future under normal sedimentation loads. Only with additional weaking of

12285-470: The inclusion of the Sámi as "Scandinavians" controversial among many Sámi. Modern Sámi politicians and organizations often stress the status of the Sámi as a people separate from and equal to the Scandinavians, with their own language and culture, and are apprehensive about being included as "Scandinavians" in light of earlier Scandinavian assimilation policies. Two language groups have coexisted on

12420-428: The language of the church and law courts remained Icelandic. The Scandinavian languages are (as a language family) unrelated to Finnish and the Sámi languages , which as Uralic languages are distantly related each other. Owing to the close proximity, there is still a great deal of borrowing from the Swedish and Norwegian languages in Finnish and the Sámi. The long history of linguistic influence of Swedish on Finnish

12555-521: The low and flat areas of Denmark in the south, as well as archipelagos and lakes in the east. Most of the population in the region live in the more temperate southern regions, with the northern parts having long, cold winters. The region became notable during the Viking Age , when Scandinavian peoples participated in large-scale raiding, conquest, colonization and trading mostly throughout Europe. They also used their longships for exploration, becoming

12690-574: The lower plate occur when normal faults oceanward of the subduction zone are activated by flexure of the plate as it bends into the subduction zone. The 2009 Samoa earthquake is an example of this type of event. Displacement of the sea floor caused by this event generated a six-meter tsunami in nearby Samoa. Seismic tomography has helped detect subducted lithospheric slabs deep in the mantle where no earthquakes occur. About one hundred slabs have been described in terms of depth and their timing and location of subduction. The great seismic discontinuities in

12825-484: The mantle, at 410 km (250 mi) depth and 670 km (420 mi), are disrupted by the descent of cold slabs in deep subduction zones. Some subducted slabs seem to have difficulty penetrating the major discontinuity that marks the boundary between the upper mantle and lower mantle at a depth of about 670 kilometers. Other subducted oceanic plates have sunk to the core–mantle boundary at 2890 km depth. Generally, slabs decelerate during their descent into

12960-463: The mantle, from typically several cm/yr (up to ~10 cm/yr in some cases) at the subduction zone and in the uppermost mantle, to ~1 cm/yr in the lower mantle. This leads to either folding or stacking of slabs at those depths, visible as thickened slabs in seismic tomography. Below ~1700 km, there might be a limited acceleration of slabs due to lower viscosity as a result of inferred mineral phase changes until they approach and finally stall at

13095-682: The middle of the 19th century, between the First Schleswig War (1848–1850) and the Second Schleswig War (1864). The Swedish king also proposed a unification of Denmark, Norway and Sweden into a single united kingdom. The background for the proposal was the tumultuous events during the Napoleonic Wars in the beginning of the century. This war resulted in Finland (formerly the eastern third of Sweden) becoming

13230-520: The most populous regions, have a temperate climate . Scandinavia extends north of the Arctic Circle , but has relatively mild weather for its latitude due to the Gulf Stream . Many of the Scandinavian mountains have an alpine tundra climate. The climate varies from north to south and from west to east: a marine west coast climate ( Cfb ) typical of western Europe dominates in Denmark,

13365-604: The mountain of Saevo ( mons Saevo ibi ), the Codanus Bay ("Codanus sinus") and the Cimbrian promontory. The geographical features have been identified in various ways. By some scholars, Saevo is thought to be the mountainous Norwegian coast at the entrance to Skagerrak and the Cimbrian peninsula is thought to be Skagen , the north tip of Jutland , Denmark. As described, Saevo and Scatinavia can also be

13500-598: The northwestern coast. A small area along the northern coast east of the North Cape has tundra climate (Et) as a result of a lack of summer warmth. The Scandinavian Mountains block the mild and moist air coming from the southwest, thus northern Sweden and the Finnmarksvidda plateau in Norway receive little precipitation and have cold winters. Large areas in the Scandinavian mountains have alpine tundra climate. The warmest temperature ever recorded in Scandinavia

13635-492: The ocean floor, studied the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and proposed that hot molten rock was added to the crust at the ridge and expanded the seafloor outward. This theory was to become known as seafloor spreading . Since the Earth's circumference has not changed over geologic time, Hess concluded that older seafloor has to be consumed somewhere else, and suggested that this process takes place at oceanic trenches , where

13770-443: The oceanic lithosphere and continental lithosphere. Subduction zones are where cold oceanic lithosphere sinks back into the mantle and is recycled. They are found at convergent plate boundaries, where the heavier oceanic lithosphere of one plate is overridden by the leading edge of another, less-dense plate. The overridden plate (the slab ) sinks at an angle most commonly between 25 and 75 degrees to Earth's surface. This sinking

13905-415: The old Sámi belief about living on an island and state that the wolf is known as suolu gievra , meaning "the strong one on the island". The Sámi place name Sulliidčielbma means "the island's threshold" and Suoločielgi means "the island's back". In recent substrate studies, Sámi linguists have examined the initial cluster sk - in words used in the Sámi languages and concluded that sk -

14040-490: The other are only partially intelligible to speakers of the continental Scandinavian languages. The Uralic languages are linguistically unrelated to the Scandinavian languages. Finnish is the majority language in Finland, and a recognized minority language in Sweden. Meänkieli and Kven , sometimes considered as dialects of Finnish, are recognized minority languages in Sweden and Norway, respectively. The Sámi languages are indigenous minority languages in Scandinavia, spoken by

14175-529: The other two Mainland Scandinavian languages. Although Iceland was under the political control of Denmark until a much later date (1918), very little influence and borrowing from Danish has occurred in the Icelandic language. Icelandic remained the preferred language among the ruling classes in Iceland. Danish was not used for official communications, most of the royal officials were of Icelandic descent and

14310-399: The overriding continent. When the lower plate subducts at a shallow angle underneath a continent (something called "flat-slab subduction"), the subducting plate may have enough traction on the bottom of the continental plate to cause the upper plate to contract by folding, faulting, crustal thickening, and mountain building. Flat-slab subduction causes mountain building and volcanism moving into

14445-428: The peninsula. The term was popularised by the linguistic and cultural Scandinavist movement , which asserted the common heritage and cultural unity of the Scandinavian countries and rose to prominence in the 1830s. The popular usage of the term in Sweden, Denmark and Norway as a unifying concept became established in the 19th century through poems such as Hans Christian Andersen 's "I am a Scandinavian" of 1839. After

14580-404: The planet. The ocean-ocean plate relationship can lead to subduction zones between oceanic and continental plates, therefore highlighting how important it is to understand this subduction setting. Although it is not fully understood what causes the initiation of subduction of an oceanic plate under another oceanic plate, there are three main models put forth by Baitsch-Ghirardello et al. that explain

14715-590: The possibility of spontaneous subduction from inherent density differences between two plates at specific locations like passive margins and along transform faults . There is evidence this has taken place in the Izu-Bonin-Mariana subduction system. Earlier in Earth's history, subduction is likely to have initiated without horizontal forcing due to the lack of relative plate motion, though a proposal by A. Yin suggests that meteorite impacts may have contributed to subduction initiation on early Earth. Though

14850-520: The pressures and temperatures necessary for this type of metamorphism are much higher than what is observed in most subduction zones. Frezzoti et al. (2011) propose a different mechanism for carbon transport into the overriding plate via dissolution (release of carbon from carbon-bearing minerals into an aqueous solution) instead of decarbonation. Their evidence comes from the close examination of mineral and fluid inclusions in low-temperature (<600 °C) diamonds and garnets found in an eclogite facies in

14985-418: The pull force of subducting lithosphere. Sinking lithosphere at subduction zones are a part of convection cells in the underlying ductile mantle . This process of convection allows heat generated by radioactive decay to escape from the Earth's interior. The lithosphere consists of the outermost light crust plus the uppermost rigid portion of the mantle . Oceanic lithosphere ranges in thickness from just

15120-578: The region can also be found in Pytheas , Pomponius Mela , Tacitus , Ptolemy , Procopius and Jordanes , usually in the form of Scandza . It is believed that the name used by Pliny may be of West Germanic origin, originally denoting Scania. According to some scholars, the Germanic stem can be reconstructed as * skaðan- , meaning "danger" or "damage". The second segment of the name has been reconstructed as * awjō , meaning "land on

15255-444: The rocks of the mantle. The mantle-derived magmas (which are initially basaltic in composition) can ultimately reach the Earth's surface, resulting in volcanic eruptions. The chemical composition of the erupting lava depends upon the degree to which the mantle-derived basalt interacts with (melts) Earth's crust or undergoes fractional crystallization . Arc volcanoes tend to produce dangerous eruptions because they are rich in water (from

15390-570: The same status at national level. Finland's majority population are Finns , whose mother tongue is either Finnish (approximately 95%), Swedish or both. The Swedish-speakers live mainly on the coastline starting from approximately the city of Porvoo (Sw: Borgå) (in the Gulf of Finland) up to the city of Kokkola (Sw: Karleby) (in the Bay of Bothnia). The Swedish-speaking population is spread out in pockets in this coastal stretch and constitutes approximately 5% of

15525-436: The sedimentary and volcanic cover is mostly scraped off to form an orogenic wedge. An orogenic wedge is larger than most accretionary wedges due to the volume of material there is to accrete. The continental basement rocks beneath the weak cover suites are strong and mostly cold, and can be underlain by a >200 km thick layer of dense mantle. After shedding the low density cover units, the continental plate, especially if it

15660-450: The sinking oceanic plate they are attached to. Where continents are attached to oceanic plates with no subduction, there is a deep basin that accumulates thick suites of sedimentary and volcanic rocks known as a passive margin. Some passive margins have up to 10 km of sedimentary and volcanic rocks covering the continental crust. As a passive margin is pulled into a subduction zone by the attached and negatively buoyant oceanic lithosphere,

15795-453: The slab and sediments) and tend to be extremely explosive. Krakatoa , Nevado del Ruiz , and Mount Vesuvius are all examples of arc volcanoes. Arcs are also associated with most ore deposits. Beyond the volcanic arc is a back-arc region whose character depends strongly on the angle of subduction of the subducting slab. Where this angle is shallow, the subducting slab drags the overlying continental crust partially with it, which produces

15930-406: The southernmost part of Sweden and along the west coast of Norway reaching north to 65°N, with orographic lift giving more mm/year precipitation (<5000 mm) in some areas in western Norway. The central part – from Oslo to Stockholm – has a humid continental climate (Dfb), which gradually gives way to subarctic climate (Dfc) further north and cool marine west coast climate (Cfc) along

16065-651: The southernmost province of Sweden) are both thought to go back to the Proto-Germanic compound * Skaðin-awjō (the ð represented in Latin by t or d ), which appears later in Old English as Scedenig and in Old Norse as Skáney . The earliest identified source for the name Scandinavia is Pliny the Elder 's Natural History , dated to the 1st century AD. Various references to

16200-447: The storage of carbon through silicate weathering processes. This storage represents a carbon sink , removing carbon from the atmosphere and resulting in global cooling. Their study correlates several Phanerozoic ophiolite complexes, including active arc-continent subduction, with known global cooling and glaciation periods. This study does not discuss Milankovitch cycles as a driver of global climate cyclicity. Modern-style subduction

16335-481: The stratosphere during violent eruptions can cause rapid cooling of Earth's climate and affect air travel. Arc-magmatism plays a role in Earth's Carbon cycle by releasing subducted carbon through volcanic processes. Older theory states that the carbon from the subducting plate is made available in overlying magmatic systems via decarbonation, where CO 2 is released through silicate-carbonate metamorphism. However, evidence from thermodynamic modeling has shown that

16470-399: The subducted plate and in the overlying mantle wedge. This type of melting selectively concentrates volatiles and transports them into the overlying plate. If an eruption occurs, the cycle then returns the volatiles into the oceans and atmosphere. The surface expressions of subduction zones are arc-trench complexes. On the ocean side of the complex, where the subducting plate first approaches

16605-526: The subducting slab bends downward. During the transition from basalt to eclogite, these hydrous materials break down, producing copious quantities of water, which at such great pressure and temperature exists as a supercritical fluid . The supercritical water, which is hot and more buoyant than the surrounding rock, rises into the overlying mantle, where it lowers the melting temperature of the mantle rock, generating magma via flux melting . The magmas, in turn, rise as diapirs because they are less dense than

16740-509: The subducting slab. Transitions between facies cause hydrous minerals to dehydrate at certain pressure-temperature conditions and can therefore be tracked to melting events in the mantle beneath a volcanic arc. Two kinds of arcs are generally observed on Earth: island arcs that form on the oceanic lithosphere (for example, the Mariana and the Tonga island arcs), and continental arcs such as

16875-446: The subduction zone, there is often an outer trench high or outer trench swell . Here the plate shallows slightly before plunging downwards, as a consequence of the rigidity of the plate. The point where the slab begins to plunge downwards is marked by an oceanic trench . Oceanic trenches are the deepest parts of the ocean floor. Beyond the trench is the forearc portion of the overriding plate. Depending on sedimentation rates,

17010-451: The subject, performs the action of overriding the object, the lower plate, which is overridden. Subduction zones are important for several reasons: Subduction zones have also been considered as possible disposal sites for nuclear waste in which the action of subduction itself would carry the material into the planetary mantle , safely away from any possible influence on humanity or the surface environment. However, that method of disposal

17145-454: The surface once the volcanoes have weathered away. The volcanism and plutonism occur as a consequence of the subducting oceanic slab dehydrating as it reaches higher pressures and temperatures. Once the oceanic slab reaches about 100 km in depth, hydrous minerals become unstable and release fluids into the asthenosphere. The fluids act as a flux for the rock within the asthenosphere and cause it to partially melt. The partially melted material

17280-464: The temperature cools to 1 to 3 °C with a salinity of 35.0 psu. The warmth provided by this current plays a role in giving Scandinavia the warmer temperatures. The Polar Surface Water has a temperature around 1.5 °C and a salinity of approximately 34 psu. Depths are around 150 meters. This water increases in temperature as it reaches the Greenland Sea , but causes colder upper waters in

17415-439: The timing and conditions in which these dehydration reactions occur is key to interpreting mantle melting, volcanic arc magmatism, and the formation of continental crust. A metamorphic facies is characterized by a stable mineral assemblage specific to a pressure-temperature range and specific starting material. Subduction zone metamorphism is characterized by a low temperature, high-ultrahigh pressure metamorphic path through

17550-444: The trench and approximately one hundred kilometers above the subducting slab. Arcs produce about 10% of the total volume of magma produced each year on Earth (approximately 0.75 cubic kilometers), much less than the volume produced at mid-ocean ridges, but they have formed most continental crust . Arc volcanism has the greatest impact on humans because many arc volcanoes lie above sea level and erupt violently. Aerosols injected into

17685-579: The water" or "island". The name Scandinavia would then mean "dangerous island", which is considered to refer to the treacherous sandbanks surrounding Scania. Skanör in Scania, with its long Falsterbo reef, has the same stem ( skan ) combined with - ör , which means "sandbanks". Alternatively, Sca(n)dinavia and Skáney , along with the Old Norse goddess name Skaði , may be related to Proto-Germanic * skaðwa- (meaning "shadow"). John McKinnell comments that this etymology suggests that

17820-407: The year. Subduction Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere and some continental lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at the convergent boundaries between tectonic plates. Where one tectonic plate converges with a second plate, the heavier plate dives beneath the other and sinks into the mantle. A region where this process occurs is known as

17955-621: Was an island separated from the northern peninsula, with water exiting the Baltic Sea through the area where Stockholm is now located. The Latin names in Pliny's text gave rise to different forms in medieval Germanic texts. In Jordanes' history of the Goths (AD 551), the form Scandza is the name used for their original home, separated by sea from the land of Europe (chapter 1, 4). Where Jordanes meant to locate this quasi-legendary island

18090-628: Was caused by subduction of the Indo-Australian plate under the Euro-Asian Plate, but the tsunami spread over most of the planet and devastated the areas around the Indian Ocean. Small tremors which cause small, nondamaging tsunamis, also occur frequently. A study published in 2016 suggested a new parameter to determine a subduction zone's ability to generate mega-earthquakes. By examining subduction zone geometry and comparing

18225-582: Was once hotter, but not that subduction conditions were hotter. Previously, the lack of pre-Neoproterozoic blueschist was thought to indicate a different type of subduction. Both lines of evidence refute previous conceptions of modern-style subduction having been initiated in the Neoproterozoic Era 1.0 Ga ago. Harry Hammond Hess , who during World War II served in the United States Navy Reserve and became fascinated in

#532467