Search for Posts, Maps, and Topics
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!
1) Which of the following is not a city in NORWAY?
A — Stockholm
B — Oslo
C — Bergen
D — Trondheim
2) In late summer 2024, over 20 silver Roman denarii coins were discovered inside a wall hole at an acropolis on the Mediterranean island of Pantelleria. The Italian island is located between ITALY and which country in Africa?
A — CAMEROON
B — TUNISIA
C — ETHIOPIA
3) Which two states in the UNITED STATES have more than 80 counties each?
A — Arizona and Nevada
B — Michigan and Minnesota
C — Connecticut and Rhode Island
D — North Dakota and South Dakota
ANSWERS
Question 1:
A . . . . . Stockholm which is the capital of Sweden (↗)
Question 2:
B . . . . . Tunisia
Question 3:
B . . . . . Michigan and Minnesota
What is the capital of SWEDEN? The correct answer is listed further below!
A — Västerås
B — Stockholm
C — Malmö
D — Arjeplog
ANSWER
B . . . . . Stockholm
Citizens all across SWEDEN celebrated their country's National Day recently on Saturday, June 6th. Happy belated National Day!
What is the Struve Geodetic Arc, a UNESCO World Heritage Site spanning across the countries of BELARUS, ESTONIA, FINLAND, LATVIA, LITHUANIA, MOLDOVA, NORWAY, RUSSIA, SWEDEN, and UKRAINE? The UNESCO World Heritage Site webpage (↗) provides an interactive map and description:
The Struve Arc is a chain of survey triangulations stretching from Hammerfest in Norway to the Black Sea, through 10 countries and over 2,820 km. These are points of a survey, carried out between 1816 and 1855 by the astronomer Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve, which represented the first accurate measuring of a long segment of a meridian. This helped to establish the exact size and shape of the planet and marked an important step in the development of earth sciences and topographic mapping. It is an extraordinary example of scientific collaboration among scientists from different countries, and of collaboration between monarchs for a scientific cause. The original arc consisted of 258 main triangles with 265 main station points. The listed site includes 34 of the original station points, with different markings, i.e. a drilled hole in rock, iron cross, cairns, or built obelisks.
Surveyors from around the world and other people involved in geodesy and geography might consider adding a [probably expensive] trip through Eastern Europe onto their travel "Bucket List"! The UNESCO description is available under license Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Intergovernmental Organization 3.0 license (↗).
According to National Geographic MapMaker (mapmaker.nationalgeographic.org) and MIT's Observatory of Economic Complexity (atlas.media.mit.edu), the following items are major exports of SWEDEN: automobiles and parts, baked goods, barley, beverages, chemicals, chocolate, coffee, combustion engines, copper, dairy products, equipment and machinery, feldspar, frozen fruit and nuts, frozen vegetables, furniture, gold, high-tech manufactured goods, iron and steel products, iron ore, malt, margarine, meat, medical devices and supplies, oats, packaged food, paper products, petroleum, pharmaceuticals, seafood, seeds, silver, sugar beets, suits, telephones, tungsten, vegetable oil, wheat, wood, and zinc. According to the International Monetary Fund (data.imf.org), countries and territories buying and importing most of those exports (February 2017 statistics) include Germany (top importer), Norway, Denmark, the United States, Finland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium, China, France, Poland, Italy, Spain, Japan, Russia, Switzerland, Australia, Turkey, Austria, and Canada.
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ for SWEDEN in Northern Europe (Scandinavia region) lists four critically endangered species and seven endangered species. The following 4 species are critically endangered in Sweden: Boreal Felt Lichen, Coregonus trybomi whitefish, European Eel, and Roundnose Grenadier fish. Sweden’s 7 endangered species are the Agabus clypealis beetle, Atlantic Bluefin Tuna, Atlantic Halibut, Fin Whale, Freshwater Pearl Mussel, Goldstreifiger beetle, and Thick-Shelled River Mussel.
Situated in southwestern SWEDEN among thousands of smaller lakes, Vänern is the largest lake in Sweden with a surface area of 5,650 square kilometers and 2,181 square miles and maximum depth of almost 107 meters (350 feet). It is also the third-largest lake in all of Europe, behind Ladoga and Onega lakes in Russia. Located in southern Värmlands län (county) and northern Västra Götalands län, Vänern is about three times larger than Sweden's second-largest lake: Vättern (1,912 sq. km, 738 sq. mi). Proving Vänern to be a useful mode of transportation, the Göta Kanal (canal) connects the lake's eastern shoreline to communities and fellow lakes to the east. Åmal, Hällekis, Karlstad, Kristinehamn, Lidköping, Mariestad, Mellerud, Säffle, Sjötorp, Stigsberget, and Vänersborg are some small and large communities where residents can live, work, and play right by Vänern. Rivers and streams connected to Vänern include Dalbergsån, Friaån, Gullspångsälven, Holmsån, Klarälven, Lidan, and Sjöråsån. The lake holds hundreds of tiny offshore islands, and Torsö (nicknamed Thor's Island) is by far the largest with an area of about 62 sq. kilometers and 24 sq. miles. Other islands include Åsundaön, Brommö, Djurö, Kållandsö, Kalvön, Lurö Skärgård islands, Nötön, Rammholmen islands, Spåron, and Vålön.
Kinnekulle — Bunch of Stones and Biodiversity
Kinnekulle is a major limestone plateau straddling the shoreline, in between the communities of Götene and Lidköping. Quarry leftovers recall a time when Kinnekulle supported a thriving mining industry decades ago. Manor houses (like Hönsäter in the photo and illustration above), cottages, villages, and centuries-old churches still exist in the area. Various nature reserves are scattered across Kinnekulle, the largest of which is Österplana Hed och Vall (Heath and Pasture) nature reserve. Västerplana Storäng is a large meadow adjacent to the lake. Bestorp, Blomberg, Gamleriket, Råbäcks Sjöskog (lake woodland), Såten and other nature reserves boast healthy deciduous and coniferous forests. Various rare and endangered fungi, flowers, insects, and animals thrive in the Kinnekulle area. The Rand McNally map to the top-left shows the boundaries of Kinnekulle. To enlarge this map to its original size, you can right-click and select Open link in new tab (Internet Explorer), or click on the image and then right-click to select Open image in new tab (Google Chrome).
About three times larger than SWEDEN's second-largest lake (Lake Vättern), Lake Vänern is the Scandinavian country's largest lake. More info will be posted in a forthcoming post!
The Scandinavian Countries usually consist of DENMARK, NORWAY, and SWEDEN, but can sometimes include FINLAND and ICELAND as well. Below, I have included all countries' areas. From the list below, you can tell that Sweden is the largest country in the grouping while Denmark is the smallest.
Denmark: 16, 629 sq. miles / 43,069 sq. kilometers (5th largest)
Iceland: 39,768 sq. miles / 103,000 sq. kilometers (4th largest)
Finland: 130,128 sq. miles /337,032 sq. kilometers (2nd largest)
Norway: 125,181 sq. miles / 324,220 sq. kilometers (3rd largest)
Sweden: 173,731 sq. miles / 449,964 sq. kilometers (largest)
The total area of Europe is 4,057,000 sq. miles (10,507,630 sq. kilometers).
Lapland is a cultural region in northern Europe, specifically located in northern FINLAND, NORWAY, and SWEDEN. This region is in the Arctic Circle. Finland and Sweden have provinces named Lapland. Despite its relatively sparse population, there are multiple cities in Lapland. Cities in Finnish Lapland include Kemijärvi, Muonio, Rovaniemi, and Sodankyla in Finland. Alta, Harstad, and Tromsø are some communities in Norway, while the cities of Gällivare, Jokkmokk, and Kiruna are located in Sweden.
Partially north of the Arctic Circle, SWEDEN (Sverige) is located in Northern Europe on the Scandinavian Peninsula and northeast of Denmark, west of Finland, and east of Norway. The Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia are east of Sweden. The capital is Stockholm, the largest city in Sweden and of all the Scandinavian countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and Norway. Other cities include Göteburg, Helsingborg, Jonkoping, Linköping, Malmö, Norrköping, Orebbro, Umeå, Uppsala, and Vasteras. The currency of Sweden is the Swedish Krona, which has SEK as the ISO 4217 currency code. As of early June 2023, Sweden did not adopt the Euro currency presently in use by 20 countries.
Blog Content
● The author of this GeoFact of the Day Blog creates and curates original, authentic content and posts information based on established facts. Blog posts are not generated by artificial intelligence (AI) but published by the author.
● Content and image graphics from other sources are properly credited. Many geography facts are well-established and therefore do not belong to any one source, but occasionally a fact requires attribution/credit if it is unique and hard-to-find — for example, facts found from specific cultural, anthropological, geological, and scientific (etc.) research.
● I do not copy and paste from other websites. Therefore, all posts are original but may sometimes include information, links, and/or images from credited external sources. To use a GeoFact of the Day Blog image for your website or project, write a comment below a post — then I may approve your request.
● Feel free to offer comments, suggestions, and compliments on any post or page! You can be anonymous. Spam comments with non-relevant links will be deleted.
● Thanks for your loyal readership on the educational and reliable GeoFact of the Day Blog, in existence since 2008!
