Geography of Estonia
Template:Short description Template:Country geography
Between 57.3 and 59.5 latitude and 21.5 and 28.1 longitude, Estonia lies on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea on the level northwestern part of the rising East European Platform. Estonia's continental mainland is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland (part of the Baltic Sea) across from Finland, to the east by Lake Peipus and Russia, and to the south by Latvia. Besides the part of the European continent, Estonian territory also includes the larger islands of Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, and over 2,200 other islands and islets in the Baltic Sea, off the western and northern shores of the country's mainland.
Average elevation in Estonia reaches Template:Convert.
The climate is maritime, wet, with moderate winters and cool summers. Oil shale and limestone deposits, along with forests which cover 47% of the land, play key economic roles in this generally resource-poor country. Estonia boasts over 1,500 lakes, numerous bogs, and 3,794 kilometers of coastline marked by numerous bays, straits, and inlets.
Geographic features
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Template:See also Template:See also
Estonia is a flat country covering Template:Convert, of which internal waters comprise 4.6%.<ref name="Raukas_2018">Template:Cite journal</ref> Estonia has a long, shallow coastline (Template:Convert) along the Baltic Sea, with 1,520 islands dotting the shore.<ref name=":0">Template:Citation-attribution</ref><ref name=":1">Template:Citation-attribution</ref> The two largest islands are Saaremaa (literally, island land), at Template:Convert, and Hiiumaa, at Template:Convert.<ref name=":0" /> The two islands are favorite Estonian vacation spots.<ref name=":0" /> The country's highest point, Suur Munamägi (Egg Mountain), is in the hilly southeast and reaches Template:Convert above sea level.<ref name=":0" /> Estonia is covered by about Template:Convert of forest.<ref name=":0" /> Arable land amounts to about Template:Convert.<ref name=":0" /> Meadows cover about Template:Convert, and pastureland covers about Template:Convert.<ref name=":0" /> There are more than 1,400 natural and artificial lakes in Estonia.<ref name=":0" /> The largest of them, Lake Peipus (Template:Convert), forms much of the border between Estonia and Russia.<ref name=":0" /> Located in central Estonia, Võrtsjärv is the second-largest lake (Template:Convert).<ref name=":0" /> The Narva and Emajõgi are among the most important of the country's many rivers.<ref name=":0" />
A small, recent cluster of meteorite craters, the largest of which is called Kaali are found on the Estonian island of Saaremaa. The impact may have been witnessed by the Iron Age inhabitants of the area.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Estonia has a temperate climate, with four seasons of near-equal length.<ref name=":0" /> Average temperatures range from Template:Convert on the Baltic islands to Template:Convert inland in July, the warmest month, and from Template:Convert on the Baltic islands to Template:Convert inland in February, the coldest month.<ref name=":0" /> Precipitation averages Template:Convert per year and is heaviest in late summer.<ref name=":0" />
Estonia's land border with Latvia runs Template:Convert; the Russian border runs Template:Convert.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> From 1920 to 1945, Estonia's border with Russia, set by the 1920 Tartu Peace Treaty, extended beyond the Narva river in the northeast and beyond the town of Petseri in the southeast.<ref name=":0" /> This territory, amounting to some Template:Convert, was transferred to Soviet Russia at the end of World War II.<ref name=":0" />
Geology
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Estonia is located on the northwestern part of the East European Platform, bordering the Fennoscandian Shield. Estonia's bedrock consists of two main layers: the crystalline basement and the sedimentary cover. These are further classified into three distinct geological complexes. The crystalline basement, composed of granites, gneisses, and other crystalline rocks, formed during the Proterozoic. This is overlain by a sedimentary cover of Paleozoic rocks, including limestones and sandstones. Above this, a quaternary surface layer is mainly composed of unconsolidated sediments such as gravels, sands, and clays, which formed in the Cenozoic.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Fauna
[edit]There live 65 different species of mammals in the Estonian forests. There are an estimated 700 brown bears, over 150 wolves, 400 lynxes, 14,000–16,000 beavers, 3,400 wild boars, 10,000–11,000 moose and 120,000–130,000 deer. There are also red deer and other wild animals.<ref name="GBIF">Animalia GBIF</ref>
Flora
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Environmental issues
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One of the most burdensome legacies of the 1944–1991 Soviet occupation of Estonia is widespread environmental pollution.<ref name=":0" /><ref>Auer, M.R., Raukas, A. (2002). Determinants of environmental cleanup in Estonia. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 20: 679–698.</ref> The worst offender in this regard was the Soviet army.<ref name=":0" /> Across military installations covering more than Template:Convert of Estonian territory, the army dumped hundreds of thousands of tons of jet fuel into the ground, improperly disposed of toxic chemicals, and discarded outdated explosives and weapons in coastal and inland waters.<ref name=":0" />
In the 1990s, during the army's withdrawal from Estonia, extensive damage was done to discarded buildings and equipment.<ref name=":0" /> In October 1993, the Estonian Ministry of Environment issued a preliminary report summing up part of the degradation it had surveyed thus far.<ref name=":0" /> The report described the worst damage as having been done to Estonia's topsoil and underground water supply by the systematic dumping of jet fuel at six Soviet army air bases.<ref name=":0" /> At the air base near Tapa, site of the worst damage, officials estimated that Template:Convert of land were covered by a layer of fuel; Template:Convert of underground water were said to be contaminated.<ref name=":0" /> The water in the surrounding area was undrinkable, and was sometimes set fire by locals to provide heat during the winter.<ref name=":0" /> With Danish help, Estonian crews began cleaning up the site, although they estimated the likely cost to be as much as 4 million EEK.<ref name=":0" /> The Ministry of Environment assigned a monetary cost of more than 10 billion EEK to the damage to the country's topsoil and water supply.<ref name=":0" /> However, the ministry was able to allocate only 5 million EEK in 1993 for cleanup operations.<ref name=":0" />
In a 1992 government report to the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development, Estonia detailed other major environmental concerns.<ref name=":0" /> For instance, for several consecutive years Estonia had led the world in the production of sulfur dioxide per capita.<ref name=":0" /> Nearly 75% of Estonia's air pollution was reported to come from two oil shale-based thermal power stations operating near Narva.<ref name=":0" /> The mining of oil shale in northeastern Estonia has also left large mounds of limestone tailings dotting the region.<ref name=":0" /> Near the town of Sillamäe, site of a former uranium enrichment plant, about 1,200 tons of uranium and about 750 tons of thorium had been dumped into a reservoir on the shore of the Gulf of Finland.<ref name=":0" /> This was said to have caused severe health problems among area residents.<ref name=":0" /> In the coastal town of Paldiski, the removal of waste left by Soviet army nuclear reactors was also a major concern.<ref name=":0" /> The combined cost of environmental cleanup at both towns was put at more than EEK3.5 billion.<ref name=":0" />
Natural hazards: flooding occurs frequently in the spring in certain areas<ref name=":1" />
Environment – current issues: air polluted with sulfur dioxide from oil-shale burning power plants in northeast; however, the amounts of pollutants emitted to the air have fallen dramatically and the pollution load of wastewater at purification plants has decreased substantially due to improved technology and environmental monitoring; Estonia has more than 1,400 natural and manmade lakes, the smaller of which in agricultural areas need to be monitored; coastal seawater is polluted in certain locations.<ref name=":1" />
Environment – international agreements:
party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Heavy Metals, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulphur 85, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping-London Protocol, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 2006, Wetlands, Whaling<ref name=":1" />
Area and boundaries
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Area:<ref name=":1" />
total: Template:Convert
land: Template:Convert
water: Template:Convert
note: includes 1,520 islands in the Baltic Sea
Land boundaries:<ref name=":1" />
total: Template:Convert
border countries: Latvia Template:Convert, Russia Template:Convert
Coastline: Template:Convert
Maritime claims:<ref name=":1" />
territorial sea: Template:Convert
exclusive economic zone: limits as agreed to by Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Sweden, and Russia
Elevation extremes:<ref name=":1" />
lowest point: Baltic Sea 0 m
highest point: Suur Munamägi Template:Convert
Geographical (landscape) areas
[edit]- Northern Estonia (roughly equivalent to Põhja-Eesti maastikuvaldkond (:et), which includes the capital city Tallinn)
- Southern Estonia
- Western Estonia
- Eastern Estonia
Resources and land use
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Natural resources: oil shale (kukersite), peat, rare earth elements, phosphorite, clay, limestone, sand, dolomite, arable land, sea mud<ref name=":1" />
Land use (2018 est.):<ref name=":1" />
- agricultural land: 22.2% (14% arable land, 0.1% permanent crops, 7.2% permanent pasture)
- forest: 52.1%
- other: 25.7%
Irrigated land: Template:Convert<ref name=":1" />
Total renewable water resources: Template:Convert (2017 est.)<ref name=":1" />