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Jutland

Jutland

Jutland (Danish: Jylland; German: Jütland) is a peninsula in northern Europe that forms the mainland part of Denmark and a northern part of Germany, dividing the North Sea from the Baltic Sea. Its terrain is relatively flat, with low hills and peat bogs. It has an area of 29,775 km² (11,496 square miles), and a population of 2,491,852 (2004). Much of the peninsula is occupied by the Kingdom of Denmark. The southern portion is made up of the German Bundesland of Schleswig-Holstein, possession of which has passed back and forth between the Danes and various German rulers, with Denmark most recently reclaiming North Schleswig (Nordslesvig in Danish) by plebiscite in 1920. The largest cities in the Danish part of the Jutland Peninsula are Århus, Aalborg, Billund, Esbjerg, Frederikshavn, Randers, Kolding, Ribe, Vejle, Viborg, and Horsens. The five largest cities in Schleswig-Holstein are Kiel, Lübeck, Flensburg, Neumünster, and Norderstedt, although Lübeck and Norderstedt are arguably not in Jutland.

History

Jutland has historically been one of the three main parts or lands of Denmark. Some Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Vandals moved from continental Europe to Britain starting in c. 450 AD. The Angles themselves gave their name to the new emerging kingdoms called England (Angle-land). This is thought by some to be related to the drive of the Huns from Asia across Europe, although the arrival of the Danes would more likely have been a major contributory factor, since conflicts between the Danes and the Jutes were both many and bloody. The Danes themselves trace their ancestry back to the ancient Scylfing kings who lived around Uppsala, Sweden in the time before recorded history in Scandinavia. In time, however, these hostilities were decreased by intermarriage between Jutes and Danes. The Danes took considerable steps to protect themselves from the depredations of the Christian Frankish emperors, principally with the building of the Danevirke, a wall stretching from the North Sea to the Baltic Sea. Charlemagne removed pagan Saxons from east Jutland at the Baltic Sea — the later Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg areas — and moved Abodrites (or Obotrites), a group of Wendish Slavs who pledged allegiance to Charlemagne and who had for the most part converted to Christianity, into the area instead. Typical of Jutland is the distinctive Jutish (or Jutlandic) dialect, sometimes considered to be more different from standard Danish than Swedish is. (This is the case in the Linguasphere linguistic classification.) To speed transit between the Baltic and the North Sea, canals have been built across the peninsula, notably the Eiderkanal in the late 18th century and the Kiel Canal, completed in 1895 and still in use. During World War I, the Battle of Jutland was one of the largest naval battles in history. In this pitched battle, the Royal Navy engaged the German Navy leading to massive casualties and ship losses on both sides. Although the Royal Navy suffered greater immediate losses, its Grand Fleet remained battle-ready. Damage to several heavy vessels of the German High Seas Fleet would have prevented them from doing the same, and the German Navy never again challenged Britain's, resorting instead to covert submarine warfare.

Danish language

Danish (dansk) belongs to the North Germanic languages (also called Scandinavian languages), a sub-group of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. It is spoken by around 5.5 million people mainly in Denmark including some 50,000 people in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany, where it holds the status of minority language. Danish also holds official status and is a mandatory subject in school in the former Danish colonies of Greenland and the Faroe Islands, that now enjoy limited autonomy. In Iceland, which was a part of Denmark until 1944, Danish is still the second foreign language taught in schools (although a few learn Swedish or Norwegian instead). The language started diverging from the common ancestor language Old Norse sometime during the 13th century and became more distinct from the other emerging Scandinavian national languages with the first bible translation in 1550, establishing an orthography differing from that of Swedish, though written Danish is usually far easier for Swedes to understand than the spoken language. Modern spoken Danish is characterized by a very strong tendency of reduction of many sounds making it particularly difficult for foreigners to understand and properly master, not just by reputation but by sheer phonetic reality.

Classification and related languages

Danish belongs to the East Scandinavian languages, together with Swedish. Though Norwegian is classified as a West Scandinavian language together with Faroese and Icelandic, a more recent classification based on mutual intelligibility places Icelandic and Faroese in a separate Insular Scandinavian branch while Norwegian is considered to be a Mainland Scandinavian language and grouped with Danish and Swedish. Written Danish and Norwegian Bokmål are particularly close, though the phonology and prosody of all three languages differ somewhat. Proficient speakers of any of the three languages can understand the others, though studies have shown that speakers of Norwegian generally understand both Danish and Swedish far better than Swedes or Danes understand any of the other languages.

History

Bokmål. The red area is the distribution of the dialect Old West Norse; the orange area is the spread of the dialect Old East Norse. The pink area is Old Gutnish and the green area is the extent of the other Germanic languages with which Old Norse still retained some mutual intelligibility.]] In the 8th century, the common Germanic language of Scandinavia, Proto-Norse, had undergone some changes and evolved into Old Norse. This language began to undergo new changes that did not spread to all of Scandinavia, which resulted the appearance of two similar dialects, Old West Norse (Norway and Iceland) and Old East Norse (Denmark and Sweden). Old East Norse is in Sweden called Runic Swedish and in Denmark Runic Danish, but until the 12th century, the dialect was the same in the two countries. The dialects are called runic due to the fact that the main body of text appears in the runic alphabet. Unlike Proto-Norse, which was written with the Elder Futhark alphabet, Old Norse was written with the Younger Futhark alphabet, which only had 16 letters. Due to the limited number of runes, some runes were used for a range of phonemes, such as the rune for the vowel u which was also used for the vowels o, ø and y, and the rune for i which was also used for e. A change that separated Old East Norse (Runic Swedish/Danish) from Old West Norse was the change of the diphthong æi (Old West Norse ei) to the monophthong e, as in stæin to sten. This is reflected in runic inscriptions where the older read stain and the later stin. There was also a change of au as in dauðr into ø as in døðr. This change is shown in runic inscriptions as a change from tauþr into tuþr. Moreover, the øy (Old West Norse ey) diphthong changed into ø as well, as in the Old Norse word for "island". From 1100 and onwards, the dialect of Denmark began to diverge from that of Sweden. The innovations spread unevenly from Denmark which created a series of minor dialectal boundaries, isoglosses, ranging from Zealand to Svealand. Some famous authors of works in Danish are existential philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, prolific fairy tale author Hans Christian Andersen, and playwright Ludvig Holberg. Three 20th century Danish authors have become Nobel Prize laureates in Literature: Karl Adolph Gjellerup and Henrik Pontoppidan (joint recipients in 1917) and Johannes Vilhelm Jensen (awarded 1944). Danish was once widely spoken in the northeast counties of England. Many Danish derived words such as gate (gade) for street, still survive in Yorkshire and other parts of eastern England colonized by Danish Vikings. The city of York was once the Danish settlement of Jorvik. The first translation of the Bible in Danish was published in 1550.

Geographical distribution

Danish is the official language of Denmark, one of two official languages of Greenland (the other is Greenlandic), and one of two official languages of the Faeroes (the other is Faeroese). In addition, there is a small community of Danish speakers in Schleswig, the portion of Germany bordering Denmark, where it is an officially recognized and protected regional language. Furthermore, it is one of the official languages of the European Union.

Dialects

Standard Danish (rigsdansk or rigsmål) is the language based on dialects spoken in and around the capital of Copenhagen. Unlike Swedish and Norwegian, Danish does not have more than one regional speech norm. More than 20% of all Danish speakers live in the metropolitan area and most government agencies, institutions and major businesses keep their main offices in Copenhagen, something that has resulted in a very homogeneous national speech norm. Though Oslo and Stockholm are quite dominant in terms of speech standards, cities like Bergen, Gothenburg and the Malmö-Lund region are large and influential enough to create secondary regional norms, making the standard language more varied than is the case with Danish. The general agreement is that Standard Danish is based on a form of Copenhagen dialect, but the specific norm is, as with most language norms, difficult to pinpoint for both laymen and linguists. More distinct "genuine" dialects still exist in smaller communities, but most speakers in these areas generally speak a regionalized form of Standard Danish. Usually an adaption of the local dialect to rigsdansk is spoken, though code-changing between the neutralized norm and a distinct dialect is common. Danish dialects are divided into three general dialect groups:
- Østdansk ("Eastern Danish)
- Ødansk ("Island Danish")
- Jysk ("Jutlandish") Historically, Eastern Danish includes what is today considered Southern Swedish dialects like Scanian and the dialect spoken on the island of Bornholm in the Baltic between the coasts Sweden and Germany. The background for this lies in the loss of originally Danish provinces like Blekinge, Halland and Skåne to Sweden in 1658. While many similarities can be found in Southern Swedish and the Bornholm-dialect, they are more similar to the modern national standards than to each other. The Bornholm-dialect has also maintained a distinction between three grammatical genders, rather than just two in Standard Danish and lacks the diphthongs used in the standard language.

Sounds

The sound system of Danish is in many ways unique among the world's languages. It is quite prone to considerable reduction and assimilation of both consonants and vowels even in very formal standard language. A rare feature is the presence of a prosodic feature called stød in Danish (lit. "push; thrust"), which is a form of laryngealization or creaky voice, and can in certain minimal pairs be the only distinguishing feature. Stød is a Danish development of the common Scandinavian word accents found in most dialects of Norwegian and Swedish, including the national standard languages, but which are tonal accents.

Vowels

Consonants

are devoiced in all contexts and hence realized as . often have slight frication, but are usually pronounced as pure approximants, and hence being rendered as . has been lost from the pronunciation of all but the oldest speakers. No distinction between and / is made in certain contexts, such as after , between short vowels and in word-final position. Hence lappe and labbe are rendered . The combination of is realized as , making it possible to postulate a tentative -phoneme in Danish. often has a syllabic function as a semivowel.

Prosody

Unlike the neighboring Mainland Scandinavian languages Swedish and Norwegian, the prosody of Danish does not have phonemic pitch. Stress is phonemic in and distinguishes words like such as ['bilist] "cheapest" and [bi'list] "car driver".

Grammar

:Main article: Danish grammar The infinitive forms of most Danish verbs end in a vowel, which in almost all cases is the letter e. Verbs are conjugated according to tense, but otherwise do not vary according to person or number. For example the present tense form of the Danish infinitive verb spise ("to eat") is spiser; this form is the same regardless of whether the subject is in the first, second, or third person, or whether it is singular or plural. This extreme ease of conjugating verbs is made up for by the many irregular verbs in the language. Danish nouns fall into two grammatical genders: common and neuter. While the majority of nouns (ca. 90%) have the common gender and neuter is often used for inanimate objects, the genders of nouns are not generally predictable and must in most cases be memorized. A distinctive feature of the Scandinavian languages, including Danish, is an enclitic definite article. To demonstrate: The common gender word "a man" (indefinite) is en mand but "the man" (definite) is manden. The neuter equivalent would be "a house" (indefinite) et hus, "the house" (definite) huset. Even though the definite and indefinite articles have separate origins, they have become homographs. In the plural the definite articles is -ene, whereas there is no indefinite article in the plural. The enclitic article is not used when an adjective is added to the noun; here the demonstrative pronoun is used instead: den store mand "the big man" and "the big house", det store hus Like most Germanic languages (but not English), Danish joins compound nouns. A clear example is kvindehåndboldlandsholdet, "the female handball national team". In some cases, these nouns are joined with an extra s, like landsmand (from land, "country", and mand, "man", meaning "compatriot"), but landmand (from same roots, meaning "farmer"). Some words are joined with an extra e, like gæstebog (from gæst and bog, meaning "guest book").

Vocabulary

Most Danish words are derived from the Old Norse language, with new words formed by compounding. A large percentage of Danish words, however, hails from Middle Low German (for example, betale = to pay, måske = maybe). Later on, standard German and French and now English have superseded Low German influence. Because English and Danish are related languages, many common words are very similar in the two languages. For example, the following Danish words are easily recognizable in their written form to English speakers: have, over, under, for, kat. When pronounced, these words sound quite different from their English equivalents, however. In addition, the suffix by, meaning "town", occurs in several English placenames, such as Whitby and Selby, as remnants of the Viking occupation.

Numerals

Danish numerals are in part based on a vigesimal system similar to that of French not shared with the other Scandinavian languages. This means that the score (i.e. 20, tyve) is used as a base number: Tres (short for tresindstyve, which is archaic) means 3 times 20, that is 60. The archaic ending -indstyve is never omitted when forming ordinal numbers between 50 and 99, so that "seventy-two" is usually rendered tooghalvfjers whereas "seventy-second" becomes tooghalvfjersindstyvende. Also, the first and second digits of numbers higher than 20 are reversed when spoken, such that 21 is said enogtyve (one and twenty). This is similar to German and also to some variants of Bokmål Norwegian (sometimes known as Riksmål). Many Danes are unaware of the vigesimal roots of these numerals. The numeral halvanden means one and a half (literally "half second", i.e. the first plus half of the second). See the table below for the full list.

Writing system

Danish is written using the Latin alphabet, with three additional letters: æ, ø, and å, which come at the end of the Danish alphabet, in that order. A spelling reform in 1948 introduced the letter å, already in use in Norwegian and Swedish, into the Danish alphabet to replace the letter aa; the old usage still occurs in some personal and geographical names and old documents (for example, the name of the city of Ålborg is often spelled Aalborg). Aa is treated just like å in alphabetical sorting, even though it looks like two letters. The same spelling reform changed the spelling of a few common words, such as vilde, kunde and skulde, to their current forms of ville, kunne and skulle, and did away with the practice of capitalising all nouns, which German still does. Modern Danish and Norwegian use the same alphabet, though spelling differs somewhat.

External links

- [http://www.dicts.info/dictlist1.php?k1=23 All free Danish dictionaries]
- [http://www.ordnet.dk/ods/ Dictionary of the Danish Language]
- [http://www.speakdanish.dk/index.html "Speak Danish" 10 day intensive online course]
- [http://www.ethnologue.org/show_language.asp?code=dan Ethnologue report for Danish]
- [http://www.dsn.dk/omdsn_en.htm Information on the Danish language]
- [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/translation/Danish/ Dictionary] with Danish- English Translations from [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org Webster's Online Dictionary] - the Rosetta Edition
- [http://hjem.tele2adsl.dk/johnmadsen/Danish/danish.html Danish grammar]
- [http://www.loecsen.com/travel/discover_pop.php?lang=en&to_lang=19&learn-Danish/ Hear and learn useful expressions in Danish] Category:Danish language Category:Guttural R Category:Languages of Denmark Category:Languages of Germany Category:North Germanic languages ko:덴마크어 ja:デンマーク語

Peninsula

A peninsula (Latin, literally meaning almost island) is a geographical formation consisting of an extension of land from a larger body, surrounded by water on three sides. A peninsula can also be a headland, cape, promontory, bill, or spit.

Peninsulas of the World

Eurasia

Continental Europe

- Apsheron, Azerbaijan
- Brittany, France
- Butjadingen, Germany
- Cotentin Peninsula, France
- Crimea, Ukraine
- Gallipoli, Turkey
- Grenen, Denmark
- Hel Peninsula, Poland
- Italian Peninsula, Italy
- Jutland Peninsula, northern Germany and Denmark
- Peniche Peninsula, Portugal
- Piran, Slovenia
- Saint-Tropez, on the French Riviera
- Walcheren, Netherlands
- Zuid-Beveland, Netherlands

Balkan peninsula

- Chalkidiki, Greece
- Pilio, Greece
- Kassandra, Greece
- Mani Peninsula, Greece
- Mount Athos, Greece
- Peloponnesos, Greece
- Sithonia, Greece
- Zadar, Croatia
- Istria, Croatia
- Peljesac peninsula, Croatia

Iberian Peninsula

encompassing the whole of Spain and Portugal
- Cabo Espichel, Portugal
- Cabo de São Vicente, Portugal
- Tróia, Portugal
- Gibraltar (British Territory)

Scandinavian Peninsula

encompassing Sweden and Norway
- Svaerholthalvoya, Norway
- Varangerhalvoya, Norway

Indian subcontinent

- Mumbai city
- Kathiawar Peninsula, Gujarat

East Asia

- Malay Peninsula
- Kowloon Peninsula, Hong Kong (China)
- Leizhou Bandao, China
- Liaodong Bandao, China
- Shandong Bandao, China
- Ca Mau Peninsula, Vietnam

Korean Peninsula

The whole land mass encompassing South and North Korea is a Peninsula

Japan

Kyushu:
- Nishi-sonogi-hanto
- Kunisaki-hato Honshu:
- Shiriya-zaki
- Oshika-hanto
- Noto-hanto
- Oga-hanto
- Miura-hato
- Boso-hanto
- Inubo-zaki
- Izu-hanto

Philippines

- Bataan Peninsula
- Bondoc peninsula, Luzon
- Zamboanga, Mindanao
- San Ildefonso peninsula, Luzon

Indonesia

- Poluostrov Yamau
- Semenanjung Blambangan, Java,
- Semenanjung Minahassa, Sulawesi
- East Peninsula, Sulawesi
- South-east Peninsula, Sulawesi
- South Peninsula, Sulawesi

Madeira Islands

(Portuguese Territory)
- Ponta de São Lourenço

The Americas

United States of America

- Alaska Peninsula, Alaska
- Cape Cod, Massachusetts
- Cleveland peninsula, Alaska
- Delmarva Peninsula, encompassing parts of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia
- Door Peninsula, Wisconsin, in Lake Michigan
- Florida Peninsula, encompassing most of Florida state
- Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
- Keweenaw Peninsula, Michigan, in Lake Superior
- Key Peninsula, Washington, in Puget Sound
- Leelanau Peninsula, Michigan, in Lake Michigan
- Lower Peninsula, Michigan
- Middle Peninsula, Virginia, on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay
- Mokapu, Hawaii
- Northern Neck, Virginia, on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay
- Old Mission Peninsula, Michigan, in Grand Traverse Bay
- Olympic Peninsula, Washington
- Pinellas Peninsula, Florida
- Sandy Hook, New Jersey
- San Francisco Peninsula, California
- Upper Peninsula, Michigan
- Virginia Peninsula, Virginia, on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay

Canada

Greenland

(Danish Territory)
- Alfred Wegeners Halvo
- Hayes Halvo
- Ingnerit
- Nuussuaq Halvo
- Svartenhuk Halvo

Mexico

- Baja California peninsula, Mexico, containing the state of Baja California and state of Baja California Sur
- Yucatán peninsula, partly separating the Gulf of Mexico from the Caribbean Sea

Central America

- Península de Azuero, Panama

South America

- Paraguana, Venezuela
- Araya Peninsula, Venezuela
- Brunswick Peninsula, Chile
- Guajira Peninsula, Colombia
- Paracas Peninsula, Peru
- Paria Peninsula, Venezuela
- Taitao Peninsula, Chile
- Verde Peninsula, Argentina
- Valdes Peninsula, Argentina

Caribbean

- Barrio Obrero, Puerto Rico, despite its name, it is also a peninsula

Australia & Oceania

Australia

Australia
- Beecroft Peninsula, New South Wales
- Cape York Peninsula, Queensland
- Cobourg Peninsula, Northern Territory
- Eyre Peninsula, South Australia
- Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia
- Freycinet Peninsula, Tasmania
- Inskip Peninsula, Queensland
- Jervis Bay Territory
- Mornington Peninsula, Victoria
- Tasman Peninsula, Tasmania
- Wilsons Promontory, Victoria
- Yorke Peninsula, South Australia
- Younghusband Peninsula, South Australia

New Zealand

- Banks Peninsula, South Island
- Bluff Peninsula, South Island
- Bream Head, North Island
- Cape Brett, North Island
- Cape Campbell, South Island
- Cape Foulwind, South Island
- Cape Kidnappers, North Island
- Cape Turnagain, North Island
- Coromandel Peninsula, North Island
- Farewell Spit, South Island
- Kaikoura Peninsula, South Island
- Karikari Peninsula, North Island
- Mahia Peninsula, North Island
- Miramar Peninsula, North Island
- Mount Maunganui, North Island
- Mount Nicaragua, North Island
- North Auckland Peninsula, North Island
- Otago Peninsula, South Island
- Tiwai Point, South Island
- Whangaparaoa Peninsula, North Island

Papua New Guinea

- Gazelle Peninsula, New Britain
- Huon

Africa

- Bakassi, Cameroon but disputed with Nigeria
- Buri Peninsula, Eritrea
- Cabo Blanco, Mauritania/Western Sahara
- Cape of Good Hope, South Africa
- Cap-Vert, Senegal
- Ceuta, Spain
- Punta Durnford, Western Sahara
- Raas Xaafuun peninsula/Ras Hafun, Somalia

Antarctica

- Antarctic Peninsula
- Edward VII Peninsula
- Fletcher Peninsula
- Fowler Peninsula
- Martin Peninsula ko:반도 ja:半島 simple:Peninsula zh-min-nan:Poàn-tó

Northern Europe

Northern Europe is a name of the northern part of the European continent. At different times this region has been defined differently but today it is generally seen to include:
- the Nordic countries, i.e. Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden
- the Baltic states, i.e. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
- The British Isles, i.e. the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands - although there is some debate about their position in this region
- others areas bordering the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, e.g. north-eastern Russia, northern Poland, northern Germany, the Benelux Before the 19th century, the term 'Nordic' or 'Northern' was commonly used to mean Northern Europe in a sense that included the Nordic countries, European Russia, the Baltic countries (at that time Livonia and Courland) and Greenland. In earlier eras, when Europe was dominated by the Mediterranean region, everything not near this sea was termed Northern Europe, including Germany, the Low Countries, and Austria. This meaning is still used today in some contexts, such as in discussions of the Northern Renaissance. In a European Union context, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands are often seen as belonging to a Northern group.

Remarks

# The Baltic sea countries, as a related term, also include Germany, Poland and Russia # The Baltic States were during the Cold War and before that during the height of the Russian Empire considered to be part of Eastern Europe, although the peoples are not Slavs, and the Baltic States share much history and many common traits with the Nordic countries. # Scandinavia is a somewhat ambiguous concept covering some or all of the Nordic countries. Northern Europe ko:북유럽 ja:北ヨーロッパ

Baltic Sea

The Baltic Sea is located in Northern Europe, from 53 deg. to 66 deg. north latitude and from 20 deg. to 26 deg. east longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainlands of Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, Central Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Öresund, the Great Belt and the Little Belt. Kattegat then continues in the Skagerrak into the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The Baltic Sea is linked to the White Sea by the White Sea Canal and directly to the North Sea by the Kiel Canal. Kiel Canal

Name

The first one to name it the Baltic Sea was Adam of Bremen and he seems to have based it on a large island, Baltia, mentioned by Xenophon and located in northern Europe.

Etymology

It is possibly connected to the Germanic belt, a name used for some of the Danish straits, while others claim it to be derived from Latin balteus (belt). From this use, Baltic has been applied to the Baltic countries. Another proposed derivation from the Indo-European root [http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?single=1&basename=/data/ie/piet&text_number=+129&root=config
- bhel] meaning white, shining seems speculative.

The name in other languages

The Baltic Sea is known by the equivalents of "East Sea", "West Sea", or "Baltic Sea" in different languages:
- In the Germanic languages except English East Sea is used: Danish (Østersøen), Dutch (Oostzee), German (Ostsee), Norwegian (Østersjøen), and Swedish (Östersjön); in addition, Finnish, a Balto-Finnic language has calqued the Swedish term as Itämeri, disregarding the geography; the sea is west of Finland.
- In another Balto-Finnic language, Estonian, it is called the West Sea (Läänemeri).
- Baltic Sea is used in English; in Latin (Mare Balticum) and the Romance languages French (Mer Baltique), Italian (Mar Baltico), Romanian (Marea Baltică) and Spanish (Mar Báltico); in the Slavic languages Polish (Morze Bałtyckie or Bałtyk), Kashubian (Bôłt), and Russian (Baltiyskoye Morye (Балтийское море)); and in the Baltic languages Latvian (Baltijas jūra) and Lithuanian (Baltijos jūra). ; Notes # [http://www.lysator.liu.se/runeberg/nfbb/0435.html] (in ).

Geophysical data

The Baltic Sea is a brackish inland sea, the largest body of brackish water in the world. The fact that it does not come from the collision of plates, but is a glacially scoured river valley, accounts for its relative shallowness.

Dimensions

The Baltic sea is about 1610 km (1000 mi) long, an average of 193 km (120 mi) wide, and an average of 55 m (180 ft, 30 fathoms) deep. The maximum depth is 459 m (1506 ft, 251 fathoms), on the Swedish side of the center. The surface area is about 377,000 sq km (145,522 sq mi) and the volume is about 21,000 cubic km (3129 cubic mi). The periphery amounts to about 8000 km (4968 mi) of coastline. [http://www.envir.ee/baltics/geograph.htm] These figures are somewhat variable because a number of different estimates have been made.

Icing in winter

The Baltic sea is iced in winter, except for the deepest regions in the center. Ice begins in the Gulf of Bothnia in October or November. Fast ice, attached to the shoreline, develops first, rendering the ports unusable without the services of icebreakers. Level ice, ice sludge, pancake ice or rafter ice form in the more open regions. The gleaming expanse of ice is similar to the arctic, with wind-driven pack ice and ridges up to 15 m, and was noted by the ancients. The degree of icing depends on whether the winter is mild, moderate or severe. Severe winters ice even the regions around Denmark and southern Sweden, leaving open only a relatively small extent south of Gotland. The ice reaches a maximum extent in February or March. By June it is gone.

Hydrography

The Baltic Sea is effluent through the Danish straits; however, the flow is complex. A surface layer of brackish water discharges 940 cubic km per year into the North Sea. Due to the difference in salinity, a sub-surface layer of more saline water moving in the opposite direction brings in 475 cubic km per year. It mixes very slowly with the upper waters, resulting in a salinity gradient from top to bottom, with most of the salt water remaining below 40 to 70 m of depth. The difference between the outflow and the inflow comes entirely from fresh water. More than 250 streams drain a basin of about 1.6 million square km, contributing a volume of 660 cubic km per year to the Baltic. They include the major rivers of north Europe, such as the Oder, the Vistula, the Neman and the Neva. Some of this water is polluted. Additional fresh water comes from the difference of precipitation less evaporation, which is positive. Despite the influx of salt water in the lower levels, the Baltic is still more of a lake or river than a sea. Tides are negligible. Wave height in calm weather varies between 2 and 3 m. Violent and sudden storms often sweep the surface, due to large transient temperature differences and a long reach of wind.

Salinity

Salinity is much lower than in the ocean, varying from 0.1 percent in the north to 0.6-0.8 percent in the center. Below 40-70 m, it can be as much as 1.5-2.0 percent. A lateral salinity gradient also exists from most saline in the northern Kattegat to least saline in the Northern Gulf of Bothnia. The most saline water remains on the bottom, creating a barrier to the exchange of Oxygen and nutrients, fostering totally different maritime environments.

Regional emergence

The land is still emerging from its subsident state, which was caused by the weight of the last glaciation. Consequently, the surface area and the depth of the sea are diminishing. The uplift is about eight millimetres per year on the Finnish coast of the northernmost Gulf of Bothnia .

Geographic data

Subdivisions

The northern part of the Baltic Sea is known as the Gulf of Bothnia out of which the northernmost part is referred to as the Bay of Bothnia. Immediately to the south of it lies the Sea of Åland. The Gulf of Finland connects the Baltic Sea with St. Petersburg. The Northern Baltic Sea lies between the Stockholm area, southwestern Finland, and Estonia. The Western and Eastern Gotland Basins form the major parts of the Central Baltic Sea. The Gulf of Riga lies between Riga and Saaremaa. Bay of Gdańsk lies east of the Hel peninsula on the Polish coast and west of Sambia in Kaliningrad Oblast. Bay of Pomerania lies north of the islands of Usedom and Wolin, east of Rügen. Bornholm Basin is the area east of Bornholm and Arkona Basin extends from Bornholm to the Danish isles of Falster and Zealand. Between Falster and the German coast lie the Bay of Mecklenburg and Bay of Lübeck. The westernmost part of the Baltic Sea is the Bay of Kiel. The three Danish straits, the Great Belt, the Little Belt and The Sound (Öresund) connect the Baltic Sea with the Kattegat bay and Skagerrak strait in the North Sea. The confluence of these two seas at Skagen on the northern tip of Denmark is a visual spectacle visited by many tourists each year.

Land use

The Baltic sea drainage basin is roughly four times the surface area of the sea itself. About 48% of the region is forested, with Sweden and Finland containing the majority of the forest, especially around the Gulfs of Bothnia and Finland. About 20% of the land is used for agriculture and pasture, mainly in Poland and around the edge of the Baltic sea proper, in Germany, Denmark and Sweden. About 17% of the basin is unused open land with another 8% of wetlands. Most of the latter are in the Gulfs of Bothnia and Finland. The rest of the land is heavily populated.

Demographics

About 85 million people live in the Baltic drainage basin, 15 within 10 km of the coast and 29 within 50 km of the coast. Around 22 million live in cities, defined as centers of over 250,000. 90% of these are concentrated in the 10 km band around the coast. Of the nations containing all or part of the basin, Poland includes 45% of the 85 million, Russia 12%, Sweden 10% and the others (see below) less than 6% each.

Geologic history

The Baltic Sea somewhat resembles a riverbed, with two tributaries (the Gulf of Finland and Gulf of Bothnia). From geological surveys it has become apparent that there was a river in the area prior to the Pleistocene: the Eridanos. Multiple glaciations in the Pleistocene scooped out the river bed into the sea basin. By the time of the last, or Eemian interglacial (MIS 5e), the Eemian sea was in place. From that time the waters underwent a geologic history summarized under the names listed below. Many of the stages are named after certain marine animals (e. g., the Littorina mollusk) that are clear markers of changing water temperatures and salinity. The factors that determined the sea’s characteristics were the submergence or emergence of the region due to the weight of ice and subsequent isostatic readjustment, and the connecting channels it could find to the North Sea-Atlantic either through the straits of Denmark or at what are now the large lakes of Sweden, and the White Sea-Arctic Sea.
- Eemian sea, 130,000-115,000 BP
- Baltic ice lake, 12,600-10,300 BP
- Yoldian sea, 10,300-9500 BP
- Ancylus lake, 9500-8000 BP
- Mastogloia sea 8000 BP-7500 BP
- Littorina sea, 7500-4000 BP
- Post-littorina sea 4000 BP-current

Prehistory

History

At the time of the Roman Empire, the Baltic Sea was known as the Mare Suebicum or Mare Sarmaticum. Tacitus in his AD 98 Agricola and Germania described the Mare Suebicum, named for the Suebi tribe, during the spring months, as a brackish sea when the ice on the Baltic Sea broke apart and chunks floated about. The Sarmatian tribes inhabited Eastern Europe and southern Russia. Jordanes called it the Germanic Sea in his work the Getica. Since the Viking age, the Scandinavians have called it "the Eastern Lake" (Austmarr, "Eastern Sea", appears in the Heimskringla and Eystra salt appears in Sörla þáttr), but Saxo Grammaticus recorded in Gesta Danorum an older name Gandvik, "-vik" being Old Norse for "bay", which implies that the Vikings correctly regarded it as an inlet of the sea. (Another form of the name, "Grandvik", attested in at least one English translation of Gesta Danorum, is likely to be a misspelling.) In addition to fish the sea also provides amber, especially from its southern shores. The bordering countries have traditionally provided lumber, wood tar, flax, hemp, and furs. Sweden had from early medieval times also a flourishing mining industry, especially on iron ore and silver. Poland had and still has extensive salt mines. All this has provided for rich trading since the Roman times. In the early Middle Ages, Vikings of Scandinavia fought for power over the sea with Slavic Pomeranians. The Vikings used the rivers of Russia for trade routes, finding their way eventually all the way to Black Sea and southern Russia. Lands next to the sea's eastern shore were among the last in Europe to be converted into Christianity in the Northern Crusades: Finland in the 12th century by the Swedes, and what are now Estonia and Latvia in the early 13th century by the Danes and the Germans (Livonian Brothers of the Sword). The powerful German Teutonic Knights gained control over most of the southern and eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, while fighting the Poles, the Danes, the Swedes, the Russians of ancient Novgorod, and the Lithuanians (latest of all Europeans to convert to Christianity). Later on, the strongest economic force in Northern Europe became the Hanseatic league, which used the Baltic Sea to establish trade routes between its member cities. In the 16th and early 17th centuries, Poland, Denmark and Sweden fought wars for Dominium Maris Baltici (Ruling over the Baltic Sea). Eventually, it was the Swedish empire that virtually encompassed the Baltic Sea. In Sweden the sea was then referred to as Mare Nostrum Balticum (Our Baltic Sea). In the 18th century Russia and Prussia became the leading powers over the sea. Russia's Peter the Great saw the strategic importance of the Baltic and decided to found his new capital, Saint Petersburg at the mouth of the Neva river at the east end of the Gulf of Finland. There was much trading not just within the Baltic region but also with the North Sea region, especially the eastern England and the Netherlands: their fleets needed the Baltic timber, tar, flax and hemp. During the Crimean War a joint fleet of Britain and France attacked Russian fortresses by bombarding Sveaborg that guards Helsinki and Kronstadt that guards Saint Petersburg and destroying Bomarsund in the Åland Islands. After the unification of Germany in 1871, the whole southern coast became German. The First World War was fought also on the Baltic Sea. After 1920 Poland returned to the Baltic Sea, and Polish ports of Gdynia and Gdańsk became leading ports of the Baltic. During the Second World War Germany reclaimed all of the southern shore and much of the eastern by occupying Poland and the Baltic states. In 1945 the Baltic Sea became a mass grave for drowned people on torpedoed refugee ships. As of 2004, the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff remains the worst maritime disaster of all time, killing (very roughly) 9,000 people. In 2005, a Russian group of scientists found over 5,000 airplane wrecks, sunken warships, etc., (mainly from the Second World War) lying in the bottom of the sea. After 1945 the sea was a border between conflicted military blocks: in case of military conflict in Germany, in parallel with a Soviet offensive towards the Atlantic Ocean, communist Poland's fleet was prepared to invade Danish isles. In May 2004, the Baltic Sea became almost completely a European Union internal sea when the Baltic states and Poland became parts of the European Union, leaving only the Russian metropolis of Saint Petersburg and the exclave of Kaliningrad Oblast as non-EU areas. The Baltic Sea starts to get very rough with the October storms. These winter storms have been the cause of many shipwrecks, for example, the sinking of the ferry M/S Estonia en route from Tallinn, Estonia to Stockholm, Sweden in 1994 that claimed the lives of hundreds. But thanks to the cold brackish water where the shipworm cannot survive, the sea is a time capsule for centuries-old shipwrecks. Perhaps the most famous one is the Vasa.

Biology

Vasa Approximately 100,000 square km of the bottom, ¼ of the total area, are a variable dead zone. The more saline and therefore heavier water remains on the bottom, preventing Oxygen distribution to it. Mainly bacteria grow there, digesting organic pollutants and releasing hydrogen sulfide. The bloom of algae is visible from the air. Since most oceanic species use the bottom for various purposes, which is denied over much of the Baltic, the ecology differs from that of the Atlantic. The low salinity of the Baltic sea has led to the evolution of many slightly divergent species, such as the Baltic Sea herring, which is a smaller variant of the Atlantic herring. The benthic fauna consists mainly of Monoporeia affinis, which is originally a freshwater species. The lack of tides has affected the marine species as compared with the Atlantic.

Economy

Construction of the Great Belt Bridge (1997) and Oresund Bridge (1999) over the international waterway of the Danish Straits limited the Baltic Sea to the middle-sized vessels. In meantime, the Baltic Sea is the main trade route for export of Russian oil. Many of the neighboring countries are rather concerned about this, since a major oil leak would be disastrous in the Baltic given the slow exchange of water, and the many unique species. The tourism industries, especially in economies dependent on tourism like for example in northeastern Germany, are naturally very concerned. Shipbuilding is practiced in many large shipyards around the Baltic: Gdańsk, Szczecin in Poland, HDW in Kiel, Germany, Karlskrona and Kockums in Malmö, Sweden, and Rauma, Turku, Helsinki in Finland and Klaipėda in Lithuania. There are several cargo and passenger ferry operators on the Baltic Sea, such as Silja Line, Polferries, Viking Line, Tallink and Superfastferries.

Countries

Main article: Baltic Sea countries Countries that border on the sea:
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- Germany
- Latvia
- Lithuania
- Poland
- Russia
- Sweden Countries that are in the drainage basin but do not border on the sea:
- Belarus
- Czech Republic
- Norway
- Slovakia
- Ukraine

Islands and Archipelagoes

Main article: List of islands in the Baltic Sea
- Åland Islands (Finland, autonomous)
- Bornholm (Denmark)
- Gotland (Sweden)
- Hailuoto (Finland)
- Hiiumaa (Estonia)
- Kotlin (Russia)
- Muhu (Estonia)
- Öland (Sweden)
- Rügen (Germany)
- Saaremaa (Estonia)
- Stockholm archipelago (Sweden)
- Usedom or Uznam (split between Germany and Poland)
- Valassaaret (Finland)
- Wolin (Poland)

Cities

The biggest coastal cities:
- Saint Petersburg (Russia) 4,700,000
- Riga (Latvia) 760,000
- Stockholm (Sweden) 743,703 (metropolitan area 1,823,210)
- Helsinki (Finland) 559,716 (metropolitan area 980,000)
- Copenhagen (Denmark) 502,204 (metropolitan area 1,823,109) (facing the Sound)
- Gdańsk (Poland) 462,700
- Szczecin (Poland) 413,600
- Tallinn (Estonia) 401,774
- Kaliningrad (Russia) 400,000
- Malmö (Sweden) 259,579 (facing the Sound)
- Gdynia (Poland) 255,600
- Kiel (Germany) 250,000
- Lübeck (Germany) 216,100
- Rostock (Germany) 212,700
- Klaipėda (Lithuania) 194,400
- Turku (Finland) 175,000 Important ports (though not being big cities):
- Świnoujście (Poland) 50,000
- Ventspils (Latvia) 44,000
- Baltiysk (Russia) 20,000
- Hanko (Finland) 10,000
- Ports of the Baltic Sea

External links

- [http://depts.washington.edu/baltic/encyclopedia.html Encyclopedia of Baltic History]
- [http://www.abc.se/~pa/uwa/wrecks.htm Old shipwrecks] in the Baltic
- [http://www.pgi.gov.pl/pgi_en/index.php?option=news&task=viewarticle&sid=4&Itemid=2 How the Baltic Sea was changing] - Prehistory of the Baltic from the [http://www.pgi.gov.pl/ Polish Geological Institute]
- [http://www.helsinki.fi/maantiede/geofi/fennia/demo/pages/oksanen.htm Late Weichselian and Holocene shore displacement history of the Baltic Sea in Finland] - more prehistory of the Baltic from the [http://www.helsinki.fi/geography/ Department of Geography] of the University of Helsinki
- [http://maps.grida.no/baltic Baltic Environmental Atlas: Interactive map of the Baltic Sea region]
- [http://www.envir.ee/baltics/ The Baltic Sea Environment]

Tourism links

University of Helsinki
- [http://www.zrot.pl Zrot : Official Tourism Site Western Pomerania (PL)] (Polish, English, German)
- [http://www.zart.com.pl Zart : Polish Tourism Site Western Pomerania (PL)] (Polish, English, German)
- [http://www.vorpommern.de Official German Tourism Site : Regional Tourist Board Vorpommern (D)] (English, German, Swedish, Polish, French, Russian, Spanish)
- [http://www.ostseeland.de Ost|See|Land - Overview: German Polish- Tourism site (D)] (English, German, Swedish, Polish)
- [http://itameri.kyamk.fi/e.html The Baltic Sea Information Centre] (English, Finnish) Category:Seas Category:Baltic Sea ko:발트 해 ja:バルト海 simple:Baltic Sea th:ทะเลบอลติก

Peat

Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation matter. Peat forms in wetlands or peatlands, variously called bogs, moors, muskegs, mires, tropical swamp forests and fens.

Geographic distribution

fen Peat deposits are found in many places around the world, notably in Russia, Ireland, Scotland, northern Germany and Scandinavia, and in North America principally in Canada, Michigan and the Florida Everglades. The majority (around 80%) of peatlands are found in high latitudes; approximately 60% of the world's wetlands are peat. Peatlands cover a total of around 3% of global land mass or 3,850,000 to 4,100,000 km². About 7% of this total has been exploited for agriculture and forestry, with significant environmental repercussions.

Peat formation

Peat forms when plant material, usually in marshy areas, is inhibited from decaying fully by acidic conditions. It is composed mainly of peat moss or sphagnum, but may also include other marshland vegetation: trees, grasses, fungi, as well as other types of organic remains, such as insects, and animal (including human) corpses. Under certain conditions the decomposition of the latter ones in the absence of oxygen is inhibited, and archaeology often takes an advantage of this. Peat layer growth and degree of decomposition (or humification) depends principally on its composition and on the degree of waterlogging. Peat formed in very wet conditions will grow considerably faster, and be less decomposed, than that in drier places. This allows climatologists to use peat as an indicator of climatic change. The composition of peat can also be used to reconstruct ancient ecologies by examining the types and quantities of its organic elements. Under the right conditions, peat is the earliest stage in the formation of coal. Most modern peat bogs formed in high latitudes after the retreat of the glaciers at the end of the last ice age some 9,000 years ago. They usually grow slowly, at the rate of about a millimetre per year.

Types of peatland

Six principal types of peatlands are widely recognised. These are:
- Blanket mires. Rain-fed peatlands generally 1 to 3 m deep. Many of the peatlands found in the United Kingdom are of this type, with the UK possessing around 13% of the total global blanket mire area. They generally develop in cool climates with small seasonal temperature fluctuations and over 1 m of rainfall and over 160 rain days each year.
- Raised mires: Rain-fed, potentially deep peatlands occurring principally in lowland areas across much of Northern Europe, as well as in the former USSR, North America and parts of the southern hemisphere.
- String mires: flat or concave peatlands with a string-like pattern of hummocks (hence the name), found principally in northern Scandinavia but occurring in the western parts of the former USSR and in North America. A few examples exist in northern Britain.
- Tundra mires: peatlands with a shallow peat layer, only about 500 mm thick, dominated by sedges and grasses. They form in permafrost areas, covering around 110,000 to 160,000 km² in Alaska, Canada, and the former USSR.
- Palsa mires: a type of peatland typified by characteristic high mounds, each with a permanently frozen core, with wet depressions between the mounds. These develop where the ground surface is only frozen for part of the year, and are common in the former USSR, Canada and parts of Scandinavia.
- Peat swamps: forested peatlands including both rain- and groundwater-fed types, commonly recorded in tropical regions with high rainfall. This type of peatland covers around 350,000 km², primarily in south-east Asia but also occurring in the Everglades in Florida.

Characteristics and uses

Peat is soft and easily compressed. Under pressure, water in the peat is forced out. Upon drying, peat can be used as a fuel, and is traditionally used for cooking and domestic heating in many countries including Ireland and Scotland, where trees are often scarce. Stacks of drying peat dug from the bogs can still be seen in some rural areas. Peat is also dug into soil to increase the latter's capacity to retain moisture and add nutrients. This makes it of considerable importance agriculturally, for farmers and gardeners alike. Its insulating properties make it of use to industry as well. Peat fires are used to dry malted barley for use in Scotch whisky distillation. This gives Scotch whisky its distinctive smoky flavour, often referred to as "peatiness" by its aficionados. Although peat has many uses for humans, it also presents severe problems at times. When dry, it can be a major fire hazard, as peat fires can burn, even underground provided there is a source of oxygen, almost indefinitely (or at least until the fuel source has been exhausted). Peat deposits also pose major difficulties to builders of roads and railways. When the West Highland Line was built across Rannoch Moor in western Scotland, its builders had to float the tracks on a mattress of tree roots, brushwood and thousands of tons of earth and ashes. During prehistoric times, peat bogs had considerable ritual significance to Bronze Age and Iron Age peoples, who considered them to be home to (or at least associated with) nature gods or spirits. The bodies of the victims of ritual sacrifices have been found in a number of locations in England, Germany and Denmark, almost perfectly preserved by the tanning properties of the acidic water. (See Tollund Man for one of the most famous examples of a bog body). Peat wetlands formerly had a degree of metallurgical importance as well. During the Dark Ages, peat bogs were the primary source of bog iron, used to create the swords and armour of the Vikings. Many peat swamps along the coast of Malaysia serve as a natural means of flood mitigation. The peat swamps serve like a natural form of water catchment whereby any overflow will be absorbed by the peat. However, this is only effective if the forests are still present since they prevent peat fires. Peat is also an important raw material in horticulture, it is used in medicine and balneology, to produce filters, textiles etc.

Peat 'production' in Ireland

In Ireland, large-scale domestic and industrial peat usage is still widespread. A state-owned company called Bord na Móna is responsible for managing peat production. It sells processed peat fuel in the form of peat briquettes which are used for domestic heating. These are oblong bars of densely compressed, dried and shredded peat. Peat moss is a manufactured product for use in garden cultivation. Turf (dried out peat sods) is not so commonly used in modern Ireland.

Environmental and ecological issues

Because of the challenging ecological conditions of peat wetlands, they are home to many rare and specialised organisms that are found nowhere else. Some environmental organisation have pointed out that the large-scale removal of peat from bogs in Britain and Ireland is destroying precious wildlife habitats. It takes centuries for a peat bog to regenerate. Recent studies indicate that the world's largest peat bog, located in Western Siberia and the size of France and Germany combined, is thawing for the first time in 11,000 years. As the permafrost melts it could release billions of tones of methane gas into the atmposphere, greatly exacerbating global warming. Such discoveries are causing climate scientists to have to revise upwards their estimates of the rate of increase in global temperatures.

Peat fires

sod sod sod Recent burning of peat bogs in Indonesia, with their large and deep growths containing more than 50 billion tons of carbon, has contributed to increases in world carbon dioxide levels. Peat deposits in southeast Asia could be destroyed by 2040. Peat in the area contains up to 21% of the world land carbon deposits.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4208564.stm] [http://asd-www.larc.nasa.gov/biomass_burn/wildland.html] In 1997, it is estimated that peat and forest fires in Indonesia released between 0.81 and 2.57 Gt of carbon; equivalent to 13-40 percent of the amount released by global fossil fuel burning, and greater than the carbon uptake of the world's biosphere. 1997 was unusually high, however. These fires likely are responsible for the boost in the increase in carbon dioxide levels since being noticed in 1997 [http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2002/2002-11-08-06.asp] [http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6613].

Wise use and peat swamp protection

In June 2002 the United Nations Development Programme launched the Wetlands Ecosystem and Tropical Peat Swamp Forest Rehabilitation Project. This project is targeted to last for 5 years till 2007 and brings together the efforts of various non-government organisations. In November 2002, the International Peat Society and the International Mire Conservation Group published guidelines on the "Wise Use of Mires and Peatlands — Backgrounds and Principles including a framework for decision-making". The aim of this publication is to develop mechanisms that can balance the conflicting demands on the global peatland heritage to ensure its wise use to meet the needs of humankind.

External links

- [http://www.peatsociety.org International Peat Society]
- [http://www.imcg.net International Mire Conservation Group]
- [http://www.rbgkew.org.uk/ksheets/peat.html Gardening without peat] information supplied by Kew gardens in London
- [http://www.rspb.org.uk/gardens/whatyoucando/peat/index.asp Peat-free gardens] from the RSPB
- [http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996613 Massive peat burn is speeding climate change] From The New Scientist Category:Coal Category:Soil science

States of Germany

Germany is a federal republic made up of 16 states, known in German as Länder (singular Land). Since Land is also the German word for "country", the term Bundesländer ("Federal States"; singular Bundesland) is often used instead to avoid ambiguity. A few of the states are city states, while others are Flächenländer ("area states"). The term "Bundesland" however is actually misleading, since it would imply a subordination of the German Länder to the federal Bund. It does not reflect the autonomy of the Länder per international law. The correct term, which is also used by the Grundgesetz, is therefore Länder. This differentiation is important, because after the end of the Second World War, the Länder in the western part of the former Deutsches Reich were constituted as administrative areas first, and built on them the Federation (Bund) was constructed. This in complete contrast to the post-war development in Austria, where the Bund was erected first, and then the states as units of the federal system followed. In Austria</

Jutland

History

See also

Danish language

Classification and related languages

History

Geographical distribution

Dialects

Sounds

Vowels

Consonants

Prosody

Grammar

Vocabulary

Numerals

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See also

External links

Peninsula

Peninsulas of the World

Eurasia

Continental Europe

The Americas

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Remarks

Baltic Sea

Name

Etymology

The name in other languages

Geophysical data

Dimensions

Icing in winter

Hydrography

Salinity

Regional emergence

Geographic data

Subdivisions

Land use

Demographics

Geologic history

Prehistory

History

Biology

Economy

Countries

Islands and Archipelagoes

Cities

See also

External links

Tourism links

Peat

Geographic distribution

Peat formation

Types of peatland

Characteristics and uses

Peat 'production' in Ireland

Environmental and ecological issues

Peat fires

Wise use and peat swamp protection

External links

States of Germany