The minerals of Great Britain, its geography and relief

North-west of the coasts of continental Europe, on the British Isles, there is a country that, by the name of the largest island, is traditionally called Great Britain. England is called the historical part of the state.

Geography

The British Isles are the largest archipelago in Europe. It consists of two large islands (Ireland and the United Kingdom) and five thousand small ones. From Denmark and Sweden, the British archipelago separates the shallow-water North Sea, and from France - the narrow straits of the Pas de Calais, as well as the English Channel. The heavily indented coastline has a total length of over a hundred kilometers.

Due to the numerous fjords and bays on the island, it is impossible to find a point that would be more than 120 km away from the seas and straits. This is the geography of the UK in general terms.

Relief

The entire territory of England can be conditionally divided into two parts. The first of them is High Britain. It is located in the west and north of the country. In this case, features of the relief and minerals of Great Britain in this area have their own characteristic features.

The fact is that in the High Britain there are stable ancient bedrock. In general, the relief represents elevations, dismembered by less widespread lowlands.

Low Britain is located in the east and south. It has a hilly relief, on which there are several mountain regions and small elevations, based on younger younger rocks.

Minerals

Currently, the British Isles can not boast a great variety of natural resources. The UK minerals, briefly listing, are natural gas and oil, coal and kaolin, fluorite and tin ore, potassium salts and celestite, non-metallic building materials and refractory clays, oil shale and zinc, copper, iron, lead, arterite, and Also barite.

Coal

The total reserves of this natural mineral are about one hundred and ninety billion tons, and they are available in the entire area of the state. The largest production is in the basins located on the southeastern slope of the Pennine Mountains (the Yorkshire deposit), in the north-east of Pennia (Northumbrand), and also on the southern slope of the Cambrian Mountains (South Wales Field).

Less coal is available in Scotland. Here the deposits are located in a chain from the western to the eastern point of the Middle-Scottish lowland. Small strata of coal are found on the Kimberlen Peninsula and in the southeastern region of England. It is worth mentioning that in the past Great Britain was the world's largest exporter of coal.

Oil and gas

The UK's minerals are extracted not only on land. Deposits of gas and oil in the 60s of the XX century. They were also discovered in the shelf of the British Archipelago of the North Sea. The extraction of these natural resources is conducted near the southeast coast of England and northeast of Scotland. In the British sector is about one-third of all oil reserves, which are rich in the shelf. This is forty five billion tons, which on a global scale is two percent. Production is carried out at fifty fields, the largest of which are Fortis and Brent.

Already in the 90 years of the 20th century. The volume of oil produced from these deposits amounted to 130 million tons. Almost half of them are exported to the Netherlands, the USA and Germany. According to independent experts, in the 21st century Great Britain will not lose its status as a major oil producer.

On the shelf, located in the North Sea, gas is extracted. At present, 37 deposits are open here. Half of the total production is provided by seven of them. This energy resource is also exported by the country.

Other natural resources

The minerals of Great Britain are also represented by iron ores. However, the deposits of these resources in the country are severely depleted. The deposits are of a sedimentary type and refer to deposits of the Jurassic period. The largest deposits are the basins located in Cumberland, Scunthorpe and Northamptonshire.

The minerals of Great Britain are also represented by tin ore. By the volume of their reserves, the country is on the first place among the states of Western Europe. The deposits are located on the Cornwall Peninsula. Placer deposits of tin ore are also found in the offshore areas of the northern coast of Cornwall.

Minerals in the UK include lead-zinc, as well as copper ore, but their reserves in the country are extremely limited.

The fourth place in the list of countries in Western Europe, the UK holds the reserves of fluorite. Deposits of this mineral are represented by metasomatic deposits and veins in carbon limestones. They are in the counties of Durham and Derbyshire, as well as in the Northern and Southern Pennines.