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48-646: In Northern Europe it was the youngest of the glacials of the Pleistocene ice age . The preceding warm period in this region was the Eemian interglacial . The last cold period began about 115,000 years ago and ended 11,700 years ago. Its end corresponds with the end of the Pleistocene epoch and the start of the Holocene . The German geologist Konrad Keilhack  [ de ] (1858–1944) named it using

96-730: A mountain glaciation of small ice fields and ice caps in the Scandinavian Mountains . The initial glaciation of the Scandinavian Mountains would have been enabled by moisture coming from the Atlantic Ocean and the mountains high altitude. Perhaps the best modern analogues to this early glaciation are the ice fields of Andean Patagonia . Since the proximity to the temperate North Atlantic typically precludes ice growth in Scandinavia, changes in

144-522: A southern gulf and a northern lake across Norra Kvarken no earlier than in about 2,000 years. Isostatic rebound exposed a submarine joint valley landscape as Stockholm archipelago . Since deglaciation the rate of post-glacial rebound in the Kandalaksha Gulf has varied. Since the White Sea connected to the world's oceans uplift along the southern coast of the gulf has totaled 90 m. In

192-555: A widespread feature in the northern hemisphere. The receding glaciers of the tropical Andes have formed a number of proglacial lakes, especially in the Cordillera Blanca of Peru, where 70% of all tropical glaciers are. Several such lakes have formed rapidly during the 20th century. These lakes may burst, creating a hazard for zones below. Many natural dams (usually moraines ) containing the lake water have been reinforced with safety dams. Some 34 such dams have been built in

240-467: Is about 54°N , or may be based on other geographical factors such as climate and ecology . The climate is mainly Oceanic climate (Cfb), Humid continental climate (Dfb), Subarctic climate (Dfc and Dsc) and Tundra (ET). Northern Europe might be defined roughly to include some or all of the following areas: British Isles , Fennoscandia , the peninsula of Jutland , the Baltic plain that lies to

288-571: Is in turn divided into four stages: In the Weichselian High Glacial (57,000 – c. 15,000 BC) the ice sheet advanced into North Germany. In this period, however, several interstadials have been documented. The short "Weichselian Late Glacial" (12,500 – c. 10,000 BC) was the period of slow warming after the Weichselian High Glacial. It was however again interrupted by some colder episodes. Following

336-659: The Baltic states and the southeastern coast of Finland had been added to the ice-free regions. In Russia, Lake Ladoga , Lake Onega , the bulk of Kola Peninsula and the White Sea were free from ice during the Younger Dryas. Before the Younger Dryas, deglaciation had not been uniform and small ice sheet re-advances had occurred forming a series of end-moraine systems, notably those in Götaland. During deglaciation, meltwater formed numerous eskers and sandurs . In north-central Småland and southern Östergötland part of

384-572: The Channeled Scablands of eastern Washington, an area heavily eroded by the Missoula Floods . The following table is a partial list of rivers that had glacial ice dams. The retreating glaciers of the last ice age, both depressed the terrain with their mass and provided a source of meltwater that was confined against the ice mass. Lake Algonquin is an example of a proglacial lake that existed in east-central North America at

432-403: The Cordillera Blanca to contain proglacial lakes. Several proglacial lakes have also formed in recent decades at the end of glaciers on the eastern side of New Zealand's Southern Alps . The most accessible, Lake Tasman , hosts boat trips for tourists. On a smaller scale, a mountain glacier may excavate a depression forming a cirque , which may contain a mountain lake, called a tarn , upon

480-1062: The German name ( Weichsel ) of the Vistula ( Polish : Wisła ) in present-day Poland. In other regions Major Glacial 4 of the Pleistocene is given a local name. In the Alpine region it is the Würm glaciation , in Great Britain the Devensian glaciation , in Ireland the Midlandian glaciation and in North America, the Wisconsin glaciation . The Fennoscandian Ice Sheet of the Weichselian glaciation most likely grew out of

528-907: The Isle of Man , the United Kingdom and Ireland are included in Western Europe , while Estonia , Latvia and Lithuania are included in Eastern Europe . The World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions is a biogeographical system developed by the international Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) organization, formerly the International Working Group on Taxonomic Databases. The WGSRPD standards, like other standards for data fields in botanical databases, were developed to promote "the wider and more effective dissemination of information about

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576-497: The Isle of Man , the United Kingdom and Ireland are included in Western Europe . In the CIA World Factbook , the description of each country includes information about "Location" under the heading "Geography", where the country is classified into a region. The following countries are included in their classification "northern Europe": as well as the dependent areas: In this classification Jersey , Guernsey ,

624-731: The Nordic countries , often the British Isles and Baltic states , and sometimes Greenland . The United Nations geoscheme is a system devised by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) which divides the countries of the world into regional and subregional groups, based on the M49 coding classification . The partition is for statistical convenience and does not imply any assumption regarding political or other affiliation of countries or territories. In

672-744: The ice divide from the Scandinavian Mountains eastwards into Sweden and the Baltic Sea. As the ice sheets in northern Europe grew prior to the Last Glacial Maximum, the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet coalesced with the ice sheet that was growing in the Barents Sea 24 ka BP ( kiloannī or one thousand years Before Present ) and with the ice sheet of the British Isles at about thousand years later. At this point

720-531: The Ålesund municipality in Norway where its existence was first established based on the local fossil record of shells . The growth of the ice sheet to its Last Glacial Maximum extent began after the Ålesund interstadial. By circa 26 ka BP, the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet reached the mid-Norwegian continental shelf break. The growth of the ice sheet was accompanied by an eastward migration of

768-703: The British Isles including the Brythonic Welsh and the Goidelic Scots Gaelic and Irish . The Celtic languages Cornish and Manx have been revived since becoming classed as extinct, being now spoken to a limited extent in Cornwall and the Isle of Man respectively. The Norman languages of Jèrriais and Guernésiais are spoken in Jersey and Guernsey, though are listed as endangered due to

816-606: The Danish Glacial ( Daniglazial ) (Denmark becomes ice-free), The Gotland Glacial ( Gotiglazial ) (Gotland becomes ice-free) and the Finnish Glacial ( Finiglazial ) (Finland and Norway become ice-free). Northern Europe The northern region of Europe has several definitions. A restrictive definition may describe northern Europe as being roughly north of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea , which

864-589: The European Union comprises most of the northern European states, plus the Netherlands. Proglacial lake In geology, a proglacial lake is a lake formed either by the damming action of a moraine during the retreat of a melting glacier , a glacial ice dam, or by meltwater trapped against an ice sheet due to isostatic depression of the crust around the ice. At the end of the last ice age about 10,000 years ago, large proglacial lakes were

912-544: The Fennoscandian Ice Sheet formed part of a larger Eurasian ice sheet complex—a contiguous glacial ice mass which spanned an area from Ireland to Novaya Zemlya . The central parts of the Weichsel ice sheet had cold-based conditions during the times of maximum extent. This means that in areas like north-east Sweden and northern Finland pre-existing landforms and deposits escaped glacier erosion and are particularly well preserved at present. Also during times of maximum extent

960-727: The North Atlantic are thought to be required for glaciation to develop in Scandinavia. The freezing and glaciation of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago could effect this by causing "relatively fresher" water from the Arctic and the North Pacific to flow east of Greenland disrupting the convection of North Atlantic Deep Water . According to this view any closing of the Bering Strait that blockades

1008-590: The Sarek Mountains formed various ephemeral ice-dammed lakes that caused numerous glacial lake outburst floods down the rivers of northernmost Sweden. Isostatic adjustment bought by deglaciation is reflected in the shoreline changes of the Baltic Sea and other nearby bodies of water. In the Baltic Sea uplift has been greatest at the High Coast in the western Bothnian Sea . Within the High Coast

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1056-546: The UN geoscheme, the following countries are classified as being in northern Europe: as well as the dependent areas: EuroVoc is a multilingual thesaurus maintained by the Publications Office of the European Union , giving definitions of terms for official use. In the definition of "northern Europe", the following countries are included: as well as the dependent area: In this classification Jersey , Guernsey ,

1104-715: The United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, however, the West Germanic language Scots is also spoken as a minority language in parts of Scotland and Ireland. Beyond this, the Finnic languages of Finnish and Estonian are the most common first languages of Finland and Estonia respectively. The Baltic languages of Lithuanian and Latvian are the most common first languages of Lithuania and Latvia respectively. A number of Celtic languages are spoken in

1152-565: The east, and the many islands that lie offshore from mainland northern Europe and the main European continent. In some cases, Greenland is also included, although it is only politically European, comprising part of the Kingdom of Denmark , and not considered to be geographically in Europe. The area is partly mountainous, including the northern volcanic islands of Iceland and Jan Mayen , and

1200-681: The end of the Eemian interglacial and start of the Weichselian glacial stage. It is divided into three sections, based on the temperature variation: the Weichselian Early Glacial, the Weichselian High Glacial (also Weichselian Pleniglacial) and the Weichselian Late Glacial. During the Weichselian, there were frequent major variations in climate in the northern hemisphere, the so-called Dansgaard–Oeschger events . The Weichsel Early Glacial (115,000–60,000 BC)

1248-769: The entering of North Pacific water to the Arctic Ocean would have been detrimental for the inception of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet. Jan Mangerud posits that parts of the Norwegian coast were likely free from glacier ice during most of the Weichselian prior to the Last Glacial Maximum . Between 38 and 28 ka BP there was a relatively warm period in Fennoscandia called the Ålesund interstadial. The interstadial receives its name from

1296-476: The highest standards of living in the world. They often score highly on surveys measuring quality of life, such as the Human Development Index . Aside from the United Kingdom, they generally have a small population relative to their size, most of whom live in cities. The quality of education in much of Northern Europe is rated highly in international rankings, with Estonia and Finland topping

1344-614: The ice sheet became increasingly concentrated in the Scandinavian Mountains (it had left Russia 10.6 ka BP and Finland 10.1 ka BP). Further retreat of the ice margin led the ice sheet to concentrate in two parts of the Scandinavian Mountains, one part in Southern Norway and another in Northern Sweden and Norway. These two centres were linked for a time. The linkage constituted a major drainage barrier that formed various large and ephemeral ice-dammed lakes . About 10.1 ka BP

1392-433: The ice sheet grew out; it was dissimilar in that the ice divide lagged behind as the ice mass concentrated in the west. It is not known if the ice sheet disintegrated into scattered remains before vanishing or if it shrank while maintaining its coherence as a single ice mass. It is possible that while some ice remained east of Sarek Mountains parts of the ice sheet survived temporarily in the high mountains. Remnants east of

1440-477: The ice sheet reached its maximum extent about 19 ka BP. In the remainder of northwestern Russia the largest glacier advance occurred 17 ka BP. As the ice margin started to recede 22–17 ka BP Denmark (except Bornholm ), Germany, Poland and Belarus were ice-free 16 ka BP. The ice margin then retreated until the Younger Dryas when the ice sheet stabilized. By this time, most of Götaland , Gotland , all of

1488-527: The ice sheet terminated to the east in a gently uphill terrain meaning that rivers drained into the glacier front and large proglacial lakes built up. The Last Glacial Maximum extent was first reached 22 ka BP in the southern boundary of the ice sheet in Denmark, Germany and Western Poland (Sławskie Lake District and Leszczyńskie Lake District). In Eastern Poland, Lithuania, Belarus and Pskov Oblast in Russia

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1536-627: The increasing prominence of English in the islands. While not the most common first languages in any country, Sámi languages such as North Sámi , Lule Sámi and South Sámi are spoken in the transnational region of Sápmi and are listed as endangered. During the Early Middle Ages , the Roman Catholic Church expanded into northern Europe and spread Christianity among the Germanic peoples . Christianity reached

1584-684: The interval from 9,500–5,000 years ago the uplift rate was of 9–13 mm/ yr . Prior to the Atlantic period the uplift rate had decreased to 5–5.5 mm/yr, to then rise briefly before arriving at the present uplift rate of 4 mm/yr. Emergence above sea level is thought to have resulted in the triggering of a series of landslides in western Sweden as pore pressure increased when the groundwater recharge zone came above sea level. About 115,000 years ago average temperatures dropped markedly and warmth-loving woodland species were displaced. This significant turning point in average temperatures marked

1632-655: The largest glacial floods in North American history were from Lake Agassiz . In modern times, the Hubbard Glacier regularly blocks the mouth of Russell Fjord at 60° north on the coast of Alaska. A similar event takes place after irregular periods in the Perito Moreno Glacier , located in Patagonia . Roughly every four years the glacier forms an ice dam against the rocky coast, causing

1680-574: The last of these cold periods, the Younger Dryas , the Weichselian Glacial ended with an abrupt climb in temperature around 9,660 ± 40 BC. This was the start of our present interglacial , the Holocene . In addition to the above subdivisions the depositions of the Weichselian Late Glacial following the retreat of the ice sheet are divided into four stages: the Germanic Glacial ( Germaniglazial ) (Germany becomes ice-free),

1728-470: The linkage had disappeared and so did the Southern Norway centre of the ice sheet about a thousand years later. The northern centre remained a few hundred years more so that by 9.7 ka BP the eastern Sarek Mountains hosted the last remnant of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet. As the ice sheet retreated to the Scandinavian Mountains this was not a return to its former mountain centred glaciation from which

1776-527: The list among the OECD countries in Europe. Germanic languages are widely spoken in northern Europe with North Germanic languages being the most common first language in the Faroe Islands ( Faroese ), Iceland ( Icelandic ), Denmark ( Danish ), Norway ( Norwegian ) and Sweden ( Swedish ). The West Germanic language English is the most common first language in Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man,

1824-409: The melting of the glacial ice. The movement of a glacier may flow down a valley to a confluence where the other branch carries an unfrozen river. The glacier blocks the river, which backs up into a proglacial lake, which eventually overflows or undermines the ice dam, suddenly releasing the impounded water in a glacial lake outburst flood also known by its Icelandic name a jökulhlaup . Some of

1872-438: The meltwater was routed through a series of canyons. It is speculated that during the Younger Dryas a small glacier readvance in Sweden created a natural lock system that brought freshwater taxa such as Mysis and Salvelinus to lakes like Sommen that were never connected to the Baltic Ice Lake . The survival of these cold-water taxa into the present-day means they are glacial relicts. When ice margin retreat resumed

1920-499: The mountainous western seaboard, Scotland and Scandinavia , and also often includes part of the large plain east of the Baltic Sea . The entire region's climate is at least mildly affected by the Gulf Stream . From the west climates vary from maritime and maritime subarctic climates. In the north and central climates are generally subarctic or Arctic and to the east climates are mostly subarctic and temperate / continental . Just as both climate and relief are variable across

1968-507: The mouth of the Clark Fork River , creating a massive lake 2,000 feet (600 m) deep and containing more than 500 cubic miles (2,000 km ) of water. Finally this Glacial Lake Missoula burst through the ice dam and exploded downstream, flowing at a rate 10 times the combined flow of all the rivers of the world. Because such ice dams can re-form, these Missoula Floods happened at least 59 times, carving Dry Falls below Grand Coulee . In some cases, such lakes gradually evaporated during

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2016-433: The peoples of Scandinavia and the Baltic region in later centuries. The Latin alphabet along with the influence of Western Christianity spread northward from Rome , leading to written English , German , Dutch , Danish , Norwegian , Swedish , Icelandic , Latvian , Lithuanian , Estonian , Finnish and Sámi languages . The Sámi were the last peoples to be converted in the 18th century. The Hansa group in

2064-415: The region, so too is vegetation, with sparse tundra in the north and high mountains, boreal forest on the north-eastern and central regions temperate coniferous forests (formerly of which a majority was in the Scottish Highlands and south west Norway ) and temperate broadleaf forests growing in the south, west and temperate east. There are various definitions of northern Europe which always include

2112-400: The relict shoreline at 286 m in Skuleberget is at present the highest known point on Earth to have been uplifted by postglacial isostatic rebound. North of the High Coast at Furuögrund off the coast of Skellefteå lies the area with the highest uplift rates at present with values of about 9 mm/yr. Ongoing post-glacial rebound is thought to result in splitting of the Gulf of Bothnia into

2160-400: The time of the last ice age . Parts of the former lake are now Lake Huron , Georgian Bay , Lake Superior , Lake Michigan and inland portions of northern Michigan. Examples in Great Britain include Lake Lapworth , Lake Harrison and Lake Pickering . Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire and Hubbard's Hills in Lincolnshire are examples of a glacial overspill channel created when the water of

2208-423: The warming period after the Quaternary ice age. In other cases, such as Glacial Lake Missoula and Glacial Lake Wisconsin in the United States, the sudden rupturing of the supporting dam caused glacial lake outburst floods , the rapid and catastrophic release of dammed water resulting in the formation of gorges and other structures downstream from the former lake. Good examples of these structures can be found in

2256-422: The waters of the Lago Argentino to rise. When the water pressure is too high, then the giant bridge collapses in what has become a major tourist attraction. This sequence occurred last on 4 March 2012, the previous having taken place four years before, in July 2008. About 13,000 years ago in North America, the Cordilleran Ice Sheet crept southward into the Idaho Panhandle , forming a large ice dam that blocked

2304-452: The world's heritage of biological organisms for the benefit of the world at large". The system provides clear definitions and codes for recording plant distributions at four scales or levels, from "botanical continents" down to parts of large countries. The following countries are included in their classification of "northern Europe": as well as the dependent areas: Countries in northern Europe generally have developed economies and some of

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