Wikipedia:Lapland (region)
From Global Warming Art
The following article is a local copy of the Wikipedia article at Lapland (region). The text is licensed under CC-BY-SA and was copied on May 29, 2010 at 02:55.
Lapland is a region in northern Fennoscandia, largely within the Arctic Circle. On the North it is bounded by the Barents Sea, on the West by the Norwegian Sea and on the East by the White Sea. [1]
The name Lapland refers to the Sami people, formerly called Lapp people, which is now considered derogatory[2][3], who are the minority indigenous people of the region. Lapland as a whole does not exist as a single administrative region, but there are discrete provinces of Finland and Sweden that also bear the name.
Contents |
Geography
Landscape
Lapland lies largely north of the Arctic Circle. The western portion is an area of fjords, deep valleys, glaciers, and mountains, the highest point being Mount Kebnekaise (2,111 m/6,926 ft), in Swedish Lapland. The part of Lapland falling on the Swedish side of the border is characterized by great rivers running from the northwest to the southeast. From the Norwegian province of Finnmark and eastwards, the terrain is that of a low plateau that contains many marshes and lakes, the largest of which is Lake Inari in Finnish Lapland. The extreme northeastern section lies within the tundra region, but it may only have permafrost in some certain types of swamps.
Climate
The climate is subarctic and vegetation is sparse, except in the densely forested southern portion. The mountainous west coast has significantly milder winters and more precipitation than the large areas east of the mountain chain due to the Gulf stream. North of the Arctic Circle polar night characterize the winter season and midnight sun the summer season—both phenomena are longer the further north you go. Traditionally, the Sami people divide the year in eight seasons instead of four.
Natural resources
Lapland contains valuable mineral deposits, particularly iron ore in Sweden, copper in Norway, and nickel and apatite in Russia. Reindeer, wolf, bear, and sea and land birds are the main forms of animal life, in addition to a myriad of insects in the short summer. Sea and river fisheries abound in the region. Steamers are operated on some of the lakes, and many ports are ice-free throughout the year including all ports along the Norwegian Sea in the west and the Barents Sea in the northeast to Murmansk. The ocean floor to the north and west of Lapland contain oil and gas deposits.
See also
Notes
- ^ "Lapland." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2009. Web. 24 Nov. 2009 http://search.eb.com/eb/article-9047170.
- ^ F. Grimes, Barbara; Joseph Evans Grimes, Summer Institute of Linguistics (2000). Ethnologue. SIL International. p. 54. ISBN 1556711034. http://books.google.com/books?id=b2liAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Lapp+is+derogatory%22&dq=%22Lapp+is+derogatory%22&pgis=1.
- ^ By International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences Commission on Nomadic Peoples (1983). Nomadic Peoples. Commission on Nomadic Peoples. http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&q=%22is%20simply%20no%20longer%20used%20in%20Fennoscandia%2C%20at%20least%20not%20in%20public%20contexts%20where%20it%20might%20be%20taken%20to%20be%20derogatory.%20English%20has%20been%20slow%20to%20follow%22&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wp.
 |
This Europe-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
