Fennoscandia

Fennoscandia
Fennoscandia in March 2002
Geography
LocationNorthern Europe
Coordinates63°N 17°E / 63°N 17°E / 63; 17
Adjacent toArctic Sea, Atlantic Ocean
Highest elevation2,469 m (8100 ft)
Highest pointGaldhøpiggen
Administration
Mainland
Mainland
Mainland
Whole or part of the mainland area of Murmansk Oblast, Republic of Karelia, and Leningrad Oblast

Fennoscandia (Finnish, Swedish and Norwegian: Fennoskandia; Russian: Фенноскандия, romanizedFennoskandiya), or the Fennoscandian Peninsula, is a peninsula in Europe which includes the Scandinavian and Kola peninsulas, mainland Finland, and Karelia.[1] Administratively, this roughly encompasses the mainlands of Finland, Norway and Sweden,[2] as well as Murmansk Oblast, much of the Republic of Karelia, and parts of northern Leningrad Oblast in Russia.

Its name comes from the Latin words Fennia (Finland) and Scandia (Scandinavia).[3] The term was first used by the Finnish geologist Wilhelm Ramsay in 1898.[4]

Geologically, the area is distinct because its bedrock is Archean granite and gneiss with very little limestone, in contrast to adjacent areas in Europe.

The similar term Fenno-Scandinavia is sometimes used for Fennoscandia. Both terms are sometimes used in English to refer to a cultural or political grouping of Finland with Sweden, Norway and Denmark (the latter country is closely connected culturally and politically, but is not part of the Fennoscandian Peninsula), which is a subset of the Nordic countries.[5][6]

  1. ^ Cummings, Vicki; Jordan, Peter; Zvelebil, Marek, eds. (2014). The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Hunter-Gatherers. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. p. 838.
  2. ^ Lavsund, Sten; Nygren, Tuire; Solberg, Erling (2003). "Status of moose populations and challenges to moose management in Fennoscandia". Alces. Archived from the original on 6 March 2007.
  3. ^ "Fennoscandia [fen′ō skan′dē ə]". Your Dictionary. LoveToKnow, Corp. Archived from the original on 21 October 2007. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
  4. ^ De Geer, Sten (1928). "Das geologische Fennoskandia und das geographische Baltoskandia" [The geological Fennoscandia and the geographical Baltoscandia] (PDF). Geografiska Annaler (in German). 10. Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography: 119–139. OCLC 604361828. Archived (PDF) from the original on 23 April 2018. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  5. ^ Bulletin – Canadian Library Association, volume 20, Canadian Library Association, 1963, p. 179
  6. ^ "Fennoscandia, n.". Oxford English Dictionary Online (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. December 2019. Archived from the original on 28 July 2020. Retrieved 10 February 2020.