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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 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.
The coast of Europe is heavily indented with bays and gulfs, as here in Greece. Europe's most significant geological feature is the dichotomy between the highlands and mountains of Southern Europe and a vast, partially underwater, northern plain ranging from Great Britain in the west to the Ural Mountains in the east.
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]
Southern Europe is focused on the three peninsulas located in the extreme south of the European continent. These are the Iberian Peninsula , the Italian Peninsula , and the Balkan Peninsula . [ 12 ] [ 13 ] These three peninsulas are separated from the rest of Europe by towering mountain ranges, respectively by the Pyrenees , the Alps and the ...
Map of the Aar basin. High Rhine. Aare. Limmat. Linth () . Lake Walen. Seeztal; Klöntal; Sernftal; Reuss. Lake Lucerne. Sarner Aa (Brünig Pass connects to the Aare ...
Articles relating to the Alps, the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, [a] [1] stretching approximately 1,200 km (750 mi) across eight countries in Western, Central and Southern Europe called the Alpine countries of which measured by Population are Germany, France, Italy, Austria Switzerland, Slovenia ...