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The Alps provide lowland Europe with drinking water, irrigation, and hydroelectric power. [66] Although the area is only about 11% of the surface area of Europe, the Alps provide up to 90% of water to lowland Europe, particularly to arid areas and during the summer months. Cities such as Milan depend on 80% of water from Alpine runoff.
While smaller groups within the Alps may be easily defined by the passes on either side, defining larger units can be problematic. A traditional divide exists between the Western Alps and the Eastern Alps, which uses the Splügen Pass (Italian: Passo dello Spluga) on the Swiss-Italian border, together with the Rhine to the north and Lake Como in the south as the defining features.
The Alpine biogeographic region of Europe includes the Alps in France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Switzerland and Monaco, the Apennines in Italy, the Pyrenees between Spain and France, the Scandes in Sweden, Finland and Norway and the Carpathians in Slovakia, Poland, Romania and Ukraine. [1]
Satellite image of Europe by night 1916 physical map of Europe Topography of Europe. Some geographical texts refer to a Eurasian continent given that Europe is not surrounded by sea and its southeastern border has always been variously defined for centuries. In terms of shape, Europe is a collection of connected peninsulas and nearby
The Alps continue fairly smoothly into the following related Alpine mountain ranges: the Apennines to the southwest, the Dinarides to the southeast and the Carpathians to the northeast. In the east the Alps are bounded by the Viennese Basin and the Pannonian Basin, where east–west stretching of the crust takes place.
Due to its position, it constitutes a bridge between Europe and Africa. In particular, the Italian peninsula is located in the center of the Mediterranean Sea, between the Balkans and Hellenic peninsula to the east, the Iberian peninsula to the west, North Africa to the south and continental Europe to the north separated by the Alps.
This is a list of the mountains of the Alps, ordered by their topographic prominence. For a list by height, see the list of mountains of the Alps. By descending to 1,500 m of prominence, this list includes all the Ultras of the Alps.
For only a small portion of its total distance does the Alpine divide form a part of the main European watershed, in the central section where the watershed is between the Po and the Rhine. The Alps are generally divided into Eastern Alps and Western Alps, cut along a line between Lake Como and Lake Constance, following the Rhine valley. [1]