Europe
Atlas Exercise Key
1.
Turn to the Table of Contents. In the World Thematic Maps section find the page number
for the Tectonics, Volcanics, Earthquakes map. Turn to this map and interpret it
to answer the following questions.
What kind of plate boundary is in the eastern Mediterranean Sea? __convergent______________
What process occurs at this boundary? ____subduction____________
Which of Europe’s landform regions did this process create? ____Alps______________
2.
Now use the Climate Regions map to answer the following questions.
Chico’s latitude is ~40°N. Which 5 European countries share this
latitude? _______Portugal, Spain, Italy, Albania, Greece, Turkey _____
The British Isles, SW Scandinavia, and much of Western Europe have the same
climate found in what part of
the western US? __Pacific Northwest____What is the name of this climate?
____Marine West Coast______
3.
Now look the Table of Contents again. . In the Europe section of the Regional
Maps find
the page number for the Europe Population map. Turn to this map and
interpret it to answer the following questions.
What would be a more precise name for this map? ____Europe Population
Density_________________
What regions of Europe are most sparsely populated? _Scandinavia, Alps,
Pyrenees, Interior of Iberian Peninsula, Carpathians_____
Why? __These regions limit human settlement possibilities with their
arid, mountainous, cold characteristics____
Europe’s region of greatest population density resembles a “T” that stretches
from Glasgow to Sicily and from Lille to Kiev. Look through your
atlas and find two maps that, at least partially, explain this density
distribution. Explain your choice of
maps.
First map: _The Minerals map shows that much of this T includes
industrial areas located there because of the presence of minerals or rivers.
Second map: __The region from Sicily to Glasgow includes a large section of cropland in a moist climate or in locations suitable for irrigation with Alps snow melt.