1. Finland
The land of a thousand lakes

2. The formation of the bedrock
In the centre of the earth there's magma, a melted stone mass which
crystallizes into different types of igneous rock if it starts rising closer to the
earth’s surface. If the magma is pushed up it cools down and slowly solidifies
into plutonic rock which is formed deep down in the bedrock, but it can be
found on the surface if old mountains have eroded in the course of millions of
years.
Granite is the most common
rock in Finland and was
formed in just that way.
Granite is very hard and does
not crack and is unusually
resistant to pressure and
impact.

3. Rapakivi
Rapakivi granite is quite a rare
type of granite. It's mostly
found in the south of Finland
and on Åland.
Rapakivi is a Finnish word and it
means ”disintegrated rock”.
The different heat expansion
coefficients of the minerals that
the rock contains make the
Rapakivi very crumbly.

4. The Ice Age in Finland
In Finland we have a lot of signs in nature from the ice age. For example, roche
moutonnées, tills, ridges, lakes, giant's kettles and glacial erratics.
Roche moutonnées: rock formations created by the passing of a glacier
Till: loose material mixed and mashed by the moving ice. When the ice melted
it fell onto the ground.
Ridges: A ridge is a narrow height which can have different origins, mainly
eskers, horsts and tills

5. The Ice Age in Finland
Lakes: the Finnish lakes were formed when the ice
was moving
Giant's kettles: As the water flowed under the ice,
there was a stream that whirled round and caused
rocks to drill holes in the bedrock
Glacial erratic: A large block of stone that moved
with the ice and when the ice melted it remained
where the melting ice left it, sometimes in a very
strange position, even standing on its edge
The last glacial period started 100 000 years ago and
ended 10 000 years ago.

6. Giant’s kettles
A kettle is a shallow hole in the bedrock formed by streaming water that
made rocks rotate in a swirl for a long period of time during the melting of
the ice. The rock that formed the kettle is usually still at the bottom or
beside the hole and is unusually smooth and egg formed.
In some kettles you can happen to find
old coins, because people used to
think that it would give you luck if you
gave a coin as an offering.

7. Our excursion to Hopom träsk
”Hopom träsk” is a fault line
lake. When the Scandies
were formed 400 million
years ago the bedrock broke
and the eastern side of the
lake rouse vertically. During
our excursion we were able
to see Giant erractic, Roche
moutonnées, Kettles, Till
and Rapakivi as well as the
fault.

8. The climate in Finland
Four seasons
In Finland we have four seasons,
winter, spring, summer and autumn.
The longest season is the cold and
dark winter that lasts from
November until March.

9. Autumn
In autumn the leaves fall off the trees
and it gets darker again. It rains a lot
and the temperature starts to sink
down to +10 degrees and below.
The birds that have lived in Finland
over the summer fly away to warmer
seas and countries.
Höst

10. Winter
In winter the temperature can
drop to -30 degrees if not lower.
It can be colder in northern
Finland, but usually it is cold in
the whole country. It often snows
a lot in winter. Because of the
global warming some winters are
warmer than before and the
snow easily turns into slush.
Vinter

11. Spring
In spring, which usually starts
in March or April, the snow
and ice melt away and the
temperature rises. It is lovely
to see the flowers bloom and
the grass and the leaves grow
again after a long winter.
Vår

12. Summer
Summers are relatively warm but short.
Some are rainier and some warmer than
others. In Finland there have been many
summers when it has been just as warm
as in Italy! It may come as a surprise, but
Finland is close enough to the Atlantic
Ocean to be continuously warmed by the
Gulf Stream. The Gulf Stream combines
with the moderating effects of the Baltic
Sea and numerous inland lakes to explain
the unusually warm climate compared to
other regions that share the same
latitude, such as Alaska, Siberia and
southern Greenland. Finns usually
consider May to be the starting point of
summer and August the end of it.
Sommar

13. There are big differences between northern and southern
Finland. Finland is located within the northern temperate
zone. North of the Arctic Circle, where a third of Finland
lies, one can see the sun all day in the middle of summer. In
winter, the sun rises over the horizon, but it doesn’t rise at
all in northern Finland. The main factor influencing Finland's
climate is the country's geographical position between the
60th and 70th northern parallels in the Eurasian continent's
coastal zone.

14. Climate data for Finland
In the Köppen climate classification, the whole of Finland lies in the boreal zone
characterized by warm summers and freezing winters. Within the country, the
temperatures vary considerably between the southern coastal regions and the
extreme north, showing characteristics of both a maritime and a continental climate.
Month
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Year
Record
high °C
10.9
11.8
17.5
25.5
31.0
33.8
37.2
33.8
28.8
19.4
14.1
10.8
37.2
Record
low °C
−51.5
−49.0
−44.3
−36.0
−24.6
−7.0
−5.0
−10.8
−18.7
−31.8
−42.0
−47.0
−51.5
Source: http://ilmatieteenlaitos.fi/lampotilaennatyksia