Spain’s Geostrategic Position & Relief Features
Consequences and Uniqueness of Spain’s Geographic Position
Spain as a Crossroads
Spain’s natural climatic features are determined by the influence of depressions and anticyclones, and weather conditions generated in the Mediterranean basin. It is also important to remember the influence of centers receiving high or low pressures. Spain has species of flora and fauna of both European and African origin. The Iberian Peninsula has been a settlement site for people from diverse backgrounds, who have approached from all fronts. Colonization is a prime example of this.
Spain’s Geostrategic Position
Spain’s geostrategic positioning is of the first order in establishing relations of all kinds. Spain is the closest European country to Africa. Its presence in North Africa is very intense in trade and economic fields, as well as in human, economic, and political relations. No less important is Spain’s position in its relations with the Americas. Spain controls one of the key maritime passages, the Strait of Gibraltar, connecting it to the Suez and Panama Canals.
Morphostructural Sets
- Old Beds: Consist of medium-altitude mountains with flattened summits, occasionally reduced to a peneplain. The materials are of Paleozoic age. They form the foundation or base of the Peninsula’s relief, offering excellent examples of Appalachian relief.
- Cordilleras (Alpine): Formed by young materials, mainly limestone, emerging after the last major folding. They integrate into the field of large mountain ranges that surround the Mediterranean.
- Depressions: Exist both inside the old massif and between its edges and the Alpine ranges.
General Features of Spanish Relief
- Average Height: Spain has a mean altitude of 660 meters above sea level, making it the second most mountainous country in Europe. This is a result of the abundance of medium-altitude mountains and, especially, the large size occupied by the plateau.
- Arrangement: Most of the Peninsula’s mountain systems are arranged peripherally in relation to the Plateau, around it, or independent of it.
- Solid and Compact Form: This is due to the large area of the Iberian Peninsula in both latitude and longitude.
The Peninsular Relief Formation
- Primary Era: During the orogenic phases, the Hercynian folding caused the Hesperian Massif to emerge from the seas that covered the peninsula. At the end of folding, erosion destroyed the new relief, creating an extensive peneplain, or plain of low slopes.
- Mesozoic Era: The land surface was organized into two main continental airlines: the continents of Laurasia and Gondwana. Between them stood the Tethys Sea.
- Tertiary Era: The Alpine folding pushed the continent of Gondwana against the North Atlantic, comprising the sediments deposited in the Tethys Sea.
- Quaternary Postorogenic Phases:
- Glacial Periods: High mountains were occupied by large glaciers, whose tongues carved valleys and dragged materials. Intensive river erosion occurred in lowlands.
- Interglacial Phases: Under warmer weather, ice accumulated during the glaciations melted.
Lithological and Structural Variety
- Siliceous Iberia: This area is made up of carriers on the surface where materials such as silica and quartz predominate in igneous and metamorphic rocks. It occupies the western third of the Peninsula: the base of the plateau, the Galician Massif, and the Central System. Its structure corresponds to the old Iberian solid. The topography is characterized by the appearance of a plateau or plateau accidental faults.
- Limestone Iberia: Composed of sedimentary formations deposited during the Mesozoic Era. Structurally, these are young ridges. The topography is characterized by hard rock, hence the rivers form deep gorges or outbreaks.
- Clay Iberia: Formed by sedimentary material of continental or marine origin, such as marls, gypsum, and clays that cover different basin funds or form the vast plains of the Meseta. Structurally, it corresponds with the great depressions of the northern and southern sub-plateau and the Ebro and Guadalquivir valleys. The topography is characterized by a gently rolling landscape, typical of the countryside.