Geography of the UK

Acts of Union - name of several statutes that accomplished the joining of England with Wales (1536), England and Wales with Scotland (1707), Great Britain with Ireland (1800).

Union Jack - the Flag of the UK since the Union with Ireland in 1801. It is made up of the red cross of St. George on a white ground (for England), the white diagonal cross or saltire of St. Andrew on a blue ground (Scotland) and the red saltire of St.Patric on a white ground (Ireland).

The Constituent Parts of the UK – England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland

Continental Shelf -a submerged edge of a continent. Continental shelves surround all the continents.

Irish Sea,arm of the Atlantic Ocean, between Ireland on the west and Great Britain on the east, and covering an area of 100,000 sq km (39,000 sq mi).

The Isle of Wight -island and county, southern England, in the English Channel, and separated from the English mainland by the Solent, a narrow channel; Newport is the administrative center

The Isles of Scilly -archipelago in southwestern England, in the Atlantic Ocean, part of the county of Cornwall, southwest of Land’s End. The group consists of about 140 small islands and rocks

Anglesey -island and county, northwestern Wales; Llangefni is the administrative center.

The Hebrides -archipelago of about 500 islands, western Scotland, in the Atlantic Ocean. The islands are divided into two groups, the Outer Hebrides and the Inner Hebrides

The Orkneys -a group of 67 islands off the northern coast of Scotland forming an administrative county of Great Britain and an important British naval base

The Shetlands -archipelago, northern Scotland, in the North Atlantic Ocean, constituting Shetland Island Area (an administrative region), northeast of the Orkney Islands.

The Isle of Man -in the Irish Sea, about midway between the coasts of Northern Ireland and England

The Channel Islands - ( Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, and Sark), are the part of the ancient duchy of Normandy that remained in the possession of the English king when, in the thirteenth century, the duchy and the kingdom were separated.

Lowland and Highland Britain -The island of Great Britain can be divided into two major natural regions—the highland zone and the lowland zone. The highland zone is an area of high hills and mountains in the north and west. The lowland zone in the south and east consists mostly of rolling plains.

The Highland Zone of Great Britain includesWales, Scotland, and parts of England . The parts of England in the highland zone include the Pennine Chain of mountains, extending down into northern England and into the southwestern peninsula.

English Channel -narrow sea, western Europe, separates France and Great Britain. Known in French as La Manche (“the sleeve”), it is 570 km (350 mi) wide in the west where it meets the Atlantic Ocean and narrows to 34 km (21 mi) at the Strait of Dover.Its principal islands are the Isle of Wight and the Channel Islands.

The Strait of Dover -in the east of the English Channel at its junction with the North Sea.

The Cumbrians - mountains in England to the west of the northern Pennines Snowdon -mountain group in northwestern Wales. It is broken by valleys into five minor groups, whose chief peak, Y Wyddfa is 1,085 m (3,560 ft) above sea level.

Ben Nevis -mountain peak in western Scotland, in Great Britain. The peak lies in the Grampian Mountains. Its height is 1,343 m (4,406 ft).

Scafell Pike - the highest peak in England in Cumbrian Mountains (978 m/3,209 ft above sea level)

The Grampians –mountains in central Scotland which form a natural division between the Lowlands and Highlands.

The Pennines -forms the backbone of northern England. It is composed of several ranges extending south from the Cheviot Hills to the valley of the Trent River

The Cheviots -range of low mountains in Great Britain form the part of the boundary between England and Scotland, extending 56 km (35 mi) in a northeastern-southwestern direction.

The Lake District -region of mountains and lakes in northwestern England

Lough Neagh, lake, central Northern Ireland. The largest lake of the British Isles, it is 29 km (18 mi) long and 24 km (15 mi) wide and has an area of 396 sq km (153 sq mi).

Loch Lomond, on the southwestern edge of the Highlands of Scotland, is the largest on the island of Great Britain, measuring 37 km (23 mi) long and from 1.6 to 8 km (1 to 5 mi) wide.

Lake Windermere is the largest of the 15 major lakes in the famous Lake District of northwestern England. It is about 1.6 km (1 mi) wide and more than 16 km (10 mi) long.

Gulf Stream, warm current of the North Atlantic Ocean. The Gulf Stream is of great climatological importance because of its moderating effects on the climate of western Europe.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1017