Geographical position of Great Britain. Climate. Mineral resources

Plan

Introduction                                                                                                                                                          3

1.      Geographical position of Great Britain                                                                                    4

2.      Climate                                                                                                                                                          9

3.      Mineral resources                                                                                                                              15

Conclusion                                                                                                                                                          21

Literature                                                                                                                                                          23

Introduction

I have decided to write about natural features of Great Britain, because as for me, it is very beautiful and picturesque country. By natural features of a country we usually mean several things: its geographical position, climate, surface divisions, rivers and lakes, soils and mineral resources. In almost all of these respects Great Britain is more or less fortunate.

The British Isles lie close to the economically developed continental Europe, in the centre of trade routes to America. Due to its insular position, Britain has no suffered so much from the two world wars as other European countries. The British Isles lie neither too far south. That is why the weather in Britain can not be too hot or too cold.

We can often hear Englishmen saying “We do not have any climate. We just have the weather”. It means the weather in Great Britain is very changeable; there may be all kinds of weather during the day. I really love British climate. It is often criticized, but in fact, it is very good – no extremes of heat or cold, enough rainfall distributed throughout the year, no typhoons or hurricanes that may destroy the crops.

As far as surface is concerned, Great Britain is less fortunate, than with water and winds: highlands, uplands and hills occupy the northern, central and western parts of the island. This factor has both possible and negative consequences for the countries economy. The mountains soils are bad for wheat and barley buy enough for grass, which is necessary for dairy farming. Besides, these regions have a lot of mineral resources for industries and manufacturing. The rivers are short but usually have enough water to grow vegetables, and the lakes are deep enough to enjoy boating and yachting.

The Great Britain is one of the world's most industrialized countries. It has few mineral resources. Coal and oil are the most important of them.

Geographical position of Great Britain

The British Isles are situated on the continental shelf off the north-west coast of Europe and comprise a group of islands lying between latitudes 50° and 61° North and longitudes 1°45' East and 8°10' West, the prime meridian of 0° passing through the old observatory of Greenwich (London). The total area of the British Isles is 322,246 square km.

Britain, formally known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, constitutes the greater part of the islands. It comprises the mainland of England, Wales and Scotland (Great Britain) and the northern part of Ireland (Northern Ireland). The southern part of Ireland, the second largest island of the group, is the Irish Republic or Eire. All in all there are over 5,000 islands in the system of the British Isles.

The United Kingdom's area is some 244,100 square km, of which about 99 per cent is land and the remainder inland water. This is nearly the same size as the Federal Republic of Germany, New Zealand and half the size of France. From south to north it stretches for over 900 km, and is just under 500 km across in the widest part and 60 km in the narrowest. Due to the numerous bays and inlets no place in Britain is as much as 120 km from the sea coast line. The combined population of the British Isles — 59.5 million people (including that of the Republic of Ireland) makes the islands one of the most densely populated parts of the earth's surface and the United Kingdom, at least, one of the most densely populated countries.

With over 57 million people, Great Britain ranks about fourteenth in the world in terms of population. The high density of population (about 233 per square kilometre) sets a problem of land use and of livelihood. Within the British Isles it implies a pressure on land, a pressure reflected both in competition for space and in intensive agriculture. The problems of supporting such a large population on such a small land area are obvious. In fact, this became possible with the emergence of Britain as the-world's first industrial nation during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It was during this period that Britain acquired vast oversea colonial territories, ruthlessly robbed and exploited them. This enabled her to become the wealthiest nation on earth.

Off the north-western coast of Great Britain there is a group of islands known as the Hebrides. They are divided into the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the groups of islands, separated from each other by the Sea of the Hebrides and the Little Minch. These groups of islands represent the higher unsubmerged portions of a dissected block broadly similar to the main highland mass.

Separated from the mainland by the stormy seven-mile wide Pentland Firth there are the Orkney Islands, comprising about a hundred islands, though only a third are inhabited, by about 19,500 people. Most of the people are engaged in dairy- and poultry farming; bacon, cheese and eggs are exported to Central Scotland.

Situated about 70 miles north of the Orkneys are the Shetland Islands, which provide thin, infertile soils suitable only for rough pasture. The total population is about 18,000. The Shetland farmers are essentially crofters, but during the summer months they are actively engaged in herring-fishing. Apart from fish, the only exports from the islands are Shetland ponies and lace knitted from the wool of local sheep. Lerwick, the chief settlement, contains about 5,000 people, but the Shetlands are far from prosperous, and the population is still steadily decreasing.

In the middle of the Irish Sea there is the Isle of Man (571 square km). The island is administered by its own Manx Parliament and has a population of about 50,000 chiefly engaged in farming, fishing and tourist trade. The only settle­ment of any size is the holiday resort of Douglas (23,000). Another important island in the Irish Sea is Anglesey, situated off the north coast of Wales. Anglesey contains only 52,000 people, and more of the working population is now engaged in industry than in fishing and agriculture. This is due partly to an increase in the tourist trade and partly to the introduction of several new industries, for example, the construction and eventual operation of the nuclear power station at Wylfa.

The Isle of Wight is in the English Channel. It is diamond-shaped, 40 km from west to east, and about half as much from north to south. The Isle of Wight lies across the southern end of Southampton Water, and is separated from the mainland by the Solent. With its sunny beaches and pleasant varied countryside, the island forms one of the South Coast's most important tourist resorts. It is linked to London by ferry and rail services. The decline of light and other industries has presented serious problems of employment for the island, and at present the population is being reduced by migration to the mainland, where the situation is far from being better.

Off the extreme south-western coast of Great Britain there is a tiny group of the Isles of Scilly.

The Channel Islands lie to the south-west on the French side of the English Channel. They form an archipelago, detached by shallow waters from the Cotentin peninsula in Normandy. As part of the Duchy of Normandy, they have been attached to the English Crown since the Norman Conquest   (1066).

The chief islands of the group are Jersey and Guernsey. Jersey (76,000) is the largest and most populous island; it occupies 60 per cent of the total area and has almost 60 per cent of the population.

There are no high mountains in Great Britain. In the north the Cheviots (the Cheviot Hills) separate England from Scotland, the Pennines stretch down North England almost along its middle, the Cambrian mountains occupy the greater part of Wales and the Highlands of Scotland are the tallest of the British mountains. Ben Nevis, the tallest peak of the Highlands, is only 1,343 m high. There is very little flat country except in the region known as East Anglia. Most of the rivers flow into the North Sea. The Thames is the deepest and the longest of the British rivers, it is over 300 km long. Some of the British greatest ports are situated in the estuaries of the Thames, Mersey, Tyne, Clyde and Bristol Avon.

The British Isles are of the continental origin. Situated off the north-west coast of Europe, they once formed part of that continent. They only became islands when they were separated from it. The separation took place thousands of years, ago, after the last Ice Age. When the ice melted, the level of the oceans rose and drowned the low-lying coastlands round the continents. This was when the English Channel, which was formerly a westward extension of the North European Plain, became a shallow stretch of sea. It was a change which greatly affected the history as well as the geography of these islands.

From the European continent the British Isles are separated by the English Channel and the North Sea. The English Channel, in its widest part in the west is 220 km wide, and in the narrowest, what is called the Strait of Dover, only 32 km. The average depth of the Channel is 60 m, and that of the strait of Dover — 30 m. Here the two opposite coasts of England and France come so near, that on a clear day the cliffs of each side can be quite well seen from the opposite shore. There were a number of schemes in the past how to connect the two coasts.

In the west the British Isles are washed by the Atlantic Ocean, in the east — by the North Sea, the average depth of which is 95 m. The two largest islands of the British Archipelago, Great Britain and Ireland, are separated from each other by the Irish Sea and the two straits, the North Channel — 20 km wide, and St George's Channel — over 100 km wide. The distance between the ports of Liverpool and Dublin is 230 km.

The advantageous geographical position of Great Britain created favorable conditions for the development of shipping, trade and the economy as a whole.

The North Atlantic Current, the drift of warm water which reaches the islands from across the Atlantic, spreads out over the shelf magnifying its ameliorating effect on the British Isles. This rather shallow skin of surface water, light because it is warm, is driven north-eastward across the ocean by the westerly wilds. It forms part of the Gulf Stream system, which begins where Florida Current pours vast quantities of remarkably warm water into the circulation of the North Atlantic. In its journey across that ocean the water loses part of its heat, but retains enough to keep the ocean surface west of the British Isles warm in winter.

The British Isles are known for their greatly indented coastline. Therefore there are many bays and harbours, peninsulas and capes on the coast, which were formed as a result of the raising and submerging of the land surface in the process of the geological development of the islands. The indentity pattern of the island of Great Britain greatly resembles that of the Norwegian coast ab­ounding in numerous deep and winding, like rivers, fiords. Due to its extreme indentity the coastline of Great Britain despite its relatively modest size, is 8,000 km long.

There is a wide network of rivers in the British Isles, though generally short in length and navigable but in their lower reaches, especially during high tides. Mild   maritime climate keeps   them   free of   ice throughout the winter months. Most of the rivers flow in the eastward direction since the west coast is mountainous.

The most important rivers are the Severn, flowing from the Cumbrian Mountains in Wales into the Bristol Channel, the Tames, flowing across the plains of south-eastern England and emptying into the North Sea, the Tyne and the Trent, flowing from the eastern slopes of the Pennines to the North Sea, The Mersey, flowing down the western slopes of the Pennines and emptying into the Irish Sea at Liverpool, and the Clyde in Scotland, which flows west across the Southern Uplands and on which the port Glasgow is situated.

CLIMATE AND WEATHER

Climatic conditions have not been constant throughout the ages. They have changed slightly and subtly since first man arrived in Britain. Prehistoric cultivators arrived in Britain about 3000 B.C. when Europe was experiencing a post-glacial climate optimum with temperatures 2-3°C higher than now. A gradual deterioration followed which became abrupt about 500 B.C.? with the setting in of a cool rainy period, though possibly with mild winters. Between about 1550 and 1850 occurred the so-called Little Ice Age but thereafter, until about 1930s or 1940s, the climate improved.

The overall experience of the years since about 1940 tends to suggest that the climate is starting to deteriorate again. The tendency is to a greater frequency of cooler, wetter summers and colder winters.

The position of the British Isles within latitudes 50° to 61CN is a basic factor in determining the main characteristics of the climate. Within the limits of the general climatic type — maritime, temperate with no dry season and with summers only moderately warm — there is, however, room for considerable variation between one region and another.

The climate of any place results from the interaction of a number of determining factors, of which the most important are latitude, distance from the sea, relief and the direction of the prevailing winds. These factors must be distinguished from the actual features of the climate, such as temperature, precipitation, wind, sunshine, fog, the humidity of the air.

Britain has a generally mild and temperate climate, which is dominated by marine influences and is rainy and equable. Britain's climate is much milder than that in any other country in the same latitudes. This is due partly to the presence of the North Atlantic Drift which begins as the Gulf Stream, in the Gulf of Mexico, crosses the Atlantic Ocean, and so reaches the shores of Europe as a warm current, and partly to the fact that north-west Europe lies in a predominantly westerly wind-belt. This means that not only do marine influences warm the land in winter and cool it in summer, but also that the winds blowing over the Atlantic have a similar effect and at the same time carry large amounts of moistu­re which is deposited over the land as rain. Britain's climate is generally one of mild winters and cool summers, with rain throughout the year, although there are considerable regional changes.

Latitudes determine the main characteristics of the climate. Temperature, the most important climatic element, depends not only on the angle at which the sun's rays strike the earth's surface, but also on the duration of daylight. The greater the angle of the sun above the horizon, the greater is the heat received and the length of the period between sunrise and sunset. The length of day at London ranges from 16 hours 35 minutes on 21 June to 7 hours 50 minutes on 21 December.

The sea greatly modifies the climate of the British Isles, for their relatively small area and the indented nature of the coastline allow maritime influences to penetrate well inland. The sea, whose waters have a higher specific heat than the rocks of the land surface, warms up more slowly, but also cools down more slowly than does the land. Consequently, in summer the land tends to be warmer than the sea, and in winter the converse is true. This moderating effect of the sea, is, in fact. the cause of the relatively small seasonal contrasts experienced in Britain.

The prevailing winds in the British Isles are westerlies. They are extremely moist, as a result of their long passage over the warm waters of the North Atlantic. On their arrival over Britain, the winds are forced upwards, and as a result large-scale condensation occurs, clouds form and precipitation follows, especially over the mountainous areas.

Relief is the most important factor controlling the distribution of temperature and precipitation within Britain. The actual temperatures experienced in the hilly and mountainous parts are considerably lower than those in the lowlands. The effect of relief on precipitation is even more striking. Average annual rainfall in Britain is about 1,100 mm. But the geographical distribution of rainfall is largely de­termined by topography, the mountainous areas of the west and north having far more rainfall than the lowlands of the south and east. The western Scottish High­lands, the Lake District, the Welsh uplands and parts of Devon and Cornwall receive more than 2,000 ram of rainfall each year. The greatest annual rainfall recorded in Britain was 6,527 mm at Sprinkling Tarn (Cumbria) in 1954. Much of this precipitation takes the form of snow, and on some of the highest summits ol the north a layer of snow may persist for several months of the year.

In contrast, the eastern lowlands, lying in a rain-shadow area, are much drier and usually receive little precipitation. Much of East Anglia has a rainfall of less than 700 mm each year, and snow falls on only 15 to 18 days on the average. The lowest annual rainfall was recorded at Margate (Kent) in 1921 (236 mm).

Rainfall is fairly well distributed throughout the year, but, on average, March to June are the driest months and October to January the wettest.

Ireland is in rather a different category, for here the rain-bearing winds have not been deprived of their moisture, and, although low-lying, much of the Irish plain receives up to 1,200 mm of rainfall per year, usually in the form of steady and prolonged drizzle. Snow, on the other hand, is rare, owing to the warming effects of the North Atlantic Drift.

Because of the North Atlantic Drift and the predominantly maritime air masses that effect the British Isles, the range in temperature throughout the year is never very great'.* The annual mean temperature in England and Wales is about 10 °C, in Scotland and Northern Ireland about 9 °C. The mean January temperature for Lon­don is 4 °C, and the mean July temperature 17 °C.

Near sea level in the west the mean annual temperature ranges from 8 °C in the Hebrides to 11 °C in the extreme south-west of England. July and August are the warmest months of the year on average and January and February the coldest. The mean summer temperatures throughout Britain increase from north to south.

The mean monthly temperature in the extreme north (the Shetlands) ranges from 3 "C during the winter (December, January and February) to 12 °C during the summer (June, July and August). The corresponding figures for the Isle of Wight, in the extreme south, are 5 °C and 16 °C.

During a normal summer the temperature may occasionally rise above 30 °C in the south. The highest shade temperature ever recorded in Britain was about 37 °G in August 1911 in Northamptonshire, Surrey and Kent. Minimum tempera­ture of—10 °C may occur on a still, clear winter's night in inland area. Lower temperatures are rare. The lowest temperature (—27.2 °C) was recorded at Braemar (the Grampians)   in February 1895 and January 1982.

In direct contrast with climate, in which short-term variations disappear with the calculation of averages, the weather of the British Isles is extremely variable. Not only is it liable to day-to-day changes — some whole seasons are markedly wet, markedly dry, unusually cold, or unusually warm.

Spring is normally Britain's driest season, even though April is by tradition showery. Cold weather usually lasts no later than mid-April, and there are frequently some very warm days during the second half of the month. By late spring daytime temperatures rise considerably, and the thermometer may even reach 21— 24 °C over a wide area.

June is the brightest month of the year for Britain in general. Rainfall tends to increase during July and August, partly because Atlantic depressions come nearer to the coast during these months and partly also because air, as it becomes warmed, is capable of holding more moisture. Late summer is often noted for very warm weather, and this may continue into September.

North and north-west winds often bring heavy falls of snow to north Britain during late October and November, but they are usually short-lived.

Continental air sometimes reaches the British Isles in summer as a warm, dry air-stream, but it is more frequently experienced in winter when it crosses the North Sea and brings bitter weather to eastern and inland districts of Great Britain.

In fine, still weather there is occasionally haze in summer and mist and fog in winter.

With its mild climate, a wide variety of relief and soils Britain once had a diverse pattern of vegetation. The original natural vegetation consisted of forest, fen and marsh in the wet lowlands, especially where the drainage was poor, and shrub, heath and moorland on the uplands where soils were thin. In the lowland areas the oak forest must have been the natural vegetation.

Apart from oak other trees of the wooded lowlands were ash, maple, elm and hazel. Today only a few scattered areas of extensive woodland remain, such as the New Forest in Hampshire and Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, which owe their survival largely to the fact that in the Middle Ages they were set aside as 'Royal Forests' for hunting. The greatest density of woodland occurs in the north and the east of Scotland, in some parts of south-east England and on the Welsh border. Throughout most of England and parts of Wales and Scotland, where temperatures are high enough to permit trees to complete their annual cycle of growth between spring and autumn, deciduous varieties (such as oak, birch, beech and ash) are more numerous. In the north and on higher ground in the west these are replaced by coniferous species, pine, fir and spruce.

Most of Britain is agricultural land of which about one-third is arable, and the rest pasture and meadow. Areas of permanent grassland are widespread in practically all parts of Britain except East Anglia, where arable farming is predo­minant, and in the highest parts of Scotland and Wales. These pastures form the chief grazing lands on which cattle and sheep are reared and fattened.

In certain areas of the country, particularly parts of the Highlands of Scotland, relief and climatic conditions are not conducive to arable farming, and such areas are therefore characterized by extensive moorland. Moorlands are found in the upland areas of north and west England, where soils are thin, drainage is poor and rainfall heavy. Large areas are commonly covered with peat and contain numerous bogs.

The hilly moorlands provide several types of wild vegetation, such as heather, fern, other hill grasses and these are to be found in the Highlands of Scotland, the Pennines, the Lake District, the mountains of Wales and elsewhere with a surface of thin poor soils.

The soils of the British Isles vary from the thin poor podzolic ones of highland regions to the rich fertile brown forest soils of low-lying areas like the fenlands of eastern England, southern England and the western Midlands.

The animal life of the British Isles is now much poorer than it was a few centuries ago. With the disappearance of forests, many forest animals, including the wolf, the bear, the boar, the deer and the Irish elk, have become practically extinct. There are foxes in most rural areas, and otters are found along many rivers and streams. Of smaller animals there are mice, rats, hedgehogs, moles, squirrels, hares, rabbits and weasels.

There are a lot of birds, including many song-birds. Blackbirds, sparrows and starlings are probably most common. There are many sea-birds, which nest round the coasts and often fly far inland in search of food or shelter in rough weather.

MINERAL RESOURCES

The rise of Britain as an industrial nation in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries was partly due to the presence of considerable mineral resources, which provided raw materials as well as sources of power. She possessed abundant supplies of coal and an adequacy of iron ore — the two chief minerals on which the Industrial Revolution was based. Coal has been worked in Britain for 700 years, and as an industry, coal-mining has been in existence for over 300 years, twice as long as in any other European country. For over a century coal was the most important source of power and fuel in Britain. She had enough non-ferrous metals — copper, lead, and tin, for example, to meet her needs for a time. But in the course of the last hundred years or so the situation has gradually changed. Many of Britain's most valuable and accessible deposits have been worked out. Moreover, coal has lost some of its former importance, and such minerals as petroleum and uranium ores have become essential materials in the modern, world. At the same time British industry has become increasingly orientated towards lighter industry, and the heavier coal-field-based industries have tended to decline as the dependence upon coal as a source of power has declined. The absence in Great Britain of high-grade iron ore, manganese, chrome, nickel and many other rare metals makes her economy greatly dependent on imported raw materials.

Coal

The highly compressed remains of swamp forests, which at various times covered large areas of Britain, exist today as seams of coal. Coalfields are generally situated on the edges of the upland masses of the north and west.

Coal was first obtained on a commercial scale as far back as the thirteenth century, notably in Northumberland, from sites where the seams actually outcrop­ped and where the nearby rivers or coast afforded a means of transport. Much of the coal in the exposed coalfields has been exhausted and nowadays it is almost always necessary to penetrate a mantle of younger rocks in order to reach the coal measures, thus leading to the development of a concealed coalfield. Coal is mined from seams under the sea in Durham, Cumberland and Fifeshire (Scotland). In certain areas the coal occurs at easily worked depths, as in South Wales, but in other areas earth-movements have meant, that the coal measures have been sunk to unworkable depths.

Most coal comes from the Yorkshire-Nottinghamshire-Derbyshire field, which produces about 60 per cent of British output. This field is one of the easiest to mine because there are fewer faults, and the coal seams are particularly thick. Some 10 per cent of total output is produced respectively in South Wales and the Central Lowlands of Scotland. Other important coalfields are to be found in North-East England (the Northumberland and Durham area), the Cumberland coalfield, the South Lancashire coalfield. The production of coal in Kent (South-East England) started in 1918, and the annual output of about 1 million tonnes is used only in the local domestic market-Coal played a crucial part in the Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In its peak year, 1913, Britain's coal output reached 292 million tonnes, and the industry employed over a million workers. By the end of the Second World War production had dropped to below 200 million tonnes, largely because the thickest and most accessible seams had been worked out. Moreover, ex­ports had declined and the mines had suffered considerable loss of manpower. In 1947 the coal industry was nationalized on capitalist lines, because the private owners were no longer able to make a profit which satisfied them. The National Coal Board was set up to manage the industry. This purely capitalist nationa­lization carried out both due to economic necessity and the pressure of the working class, turned profitable for monopolies.

Oil and Gas

As the importance of coal has declined, oil has become of increasing significance. Crude oil can be refined to produce a wide variety of products including petrol and diesel oils for motor vehicles, aviation spirit, domestic heating oils, and even feedstuffs for animals. Up to the early 1960s, over 99 per cent of Britain's petroleum requirements were imported, primarily from the Middle Eastern coun­tries. Since then considerable discoveries of crude oil and natural gas have been made in the North Sea, and the first oil was brought ashore in 1975. Oil production has grown steadily since that time, amounting in 1987 to 123 million tonnes. The discovery of substantial offshore oil and gas reserves has changed Britain's energy position, it has become self-sufficient in energy.

The most important offshore oilfields are to be found off the coasts of north-east England and especially eastern and northern Scotland.

With the growth in offshore oil production Britain has become an important oil exporter, mostly to the USA and West Germany. The share of imports has fallen considerably, though Britain continues to import heavy crude oil of lower quality from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Norway, primarily for the production of diesel oil widely used by motor transport.

In charge of the British oil industry are the two leading companies — British Petroleum (BP) and Shell, which gain tremendous profits from the industry. They are the two largest industrial companies in Britain in terms of turnover.

For many years gas was produced from coal and had important applications as fuel for domestic gas stoves and systems of central heating, in steel-making and in other industrial processes. But during the 1960s, when growing supplies of oil were being imported, there was a switch lo producing town gas from oil-based feedstocks.

However, a more significant change began in the late 1960s following the first commercial natural gas discovery in the North Sea in 1965 and the start of offshore gas production in 1967. Supplies of the offshore natural gas grew rapidly and natural gas now replaced town gas as the source of gas for the public supply system in Britain.

Iron Ore 

Although iron ore is one of the most abundant metals in the earth's crust, only those rocks which contain 25 per cent or more of iron are considered worthy of exploita­tion as iron ores. The total reserves of iron ore in Britain are estimated at 3.8 billion tonnes.

Iron ores are widely found, though they differ in the manner of their formation, colour, appearance, iron content, chemical and physical properties and the quality of metal produced. British iron ores are of poor quality, their iron content ranging from 22 to 32 per cent. In Britain two chief types of iron ore are found: haematite and Jurassic. Haematite contains up to 70 per cent of metal and usually occurs in rocks of Cumberland, near Barrow-in-Furness. But this high-grade ore is nearly exhausted. The Jurassic iron ores contain only about half as much iron as haematite, or even less. They are frequently found in the rocks which extend from the Cleveland Hills, in Yorkshire southward through Lincolnshire and Northamptonshi­re, as well as in Lancashire and North Staffordshire.

Most of iron fields in Great Britain are to be found in the areas of major coal-basins, and this created favorable conditions for the development of metallur­gy, especially at early stages of its history.

As the metallurgical industry expanded, the failing supplies of domestic ore could no longer keep pace with the demands for the production of pig-iron and steel. Home production was greatly supplemented, and later greatly surpassed, by imports.

The production of other metallic minerals is overshadowed by the importance of coal and, more recently, petroleum. Great Britain has no large-scale sources of non-ferrous metals, but small scattered deposits of lead, tin, copper, zinc and even gold have been known and worked at various times during the last three thou­sand years, hi the pre-Christian era Phoenicians visited Cornwall in search of tin, which is found in association with copper among igneous rocks. The Romans, who were pioneers of plumbing, worked lead mines in Derbyshire. As recently as a century ago, Britain was still a leading producer of non-ferrous ores, especially of tin in Cornwall and of lead in Derbyshire, Cumberland and elsewhere. But now hardly any deposits are being worked. Most of the mines are exhausted, while others lie neglected and flooded.

Some other minerals are found but not extensively worked. Tin, which was once the chief mineral production in the British Isles, is now only worked spasmodically in two mines in Cornwall, while copper, also important at one time is no longer wor­ked. Very small quantities of manganese are found in the tin mining areas of Corn­wall, and some bauxite occurs in beds among the volcanic rocks of Antrim near Ballymena and Larne in Northern Ireland.

The major bulk of non-ferrous metals indispensable for Britain's economy is imported.

Non-Metallic Minerals

A great variety of non-metallic minerals is produced in Britain. Various common rocks are mined for building purposes, heavy constructional work and for road-making, as in the case of granites in Devon, Cornwall and Aberdeenshire, and basaltic rocks in Northumberland, Shropshire and parts of the Scottish Lowlands. Sandstones and limestones have for centuries been used for the construction of houses. Limestone is used also in the chemical and iron and steel industries, as well as to provide lime for fertilizers, for road-making and also for cement manu­facture. The Pen nines are especially rich in sandstones and limestones, and Yorkshire and Lancashire are the leading quarrying counties.

Deposits of clay, especially in the Bedford and Peterborough areas, are important in the manufacture of bricks, while slates in Cumberland and North Wales have been extensively quarried as roofing materials. Fireclay, often found under coal seams, is used for making bricks suitable for lining furnaces.

Chalk is used in the cement industry and is mined on both banks of the Thames estuary, the South Downs and on the banks of the Humber.

Sand and gravel for the building industry generally come from pits which are fairly widespread throughout midland and northern England and central Scotland, and on the river terraces in the Midlands and southern England. Certain special varieties of sand are used in the glass-making industry, and these are concentrated in Bedfordshire, Norfolk and Lancashire.

Kaolin, a fine, white china-clay, occurs in Cornwall and Devon. It is shipped for use in cotton, paper and pottery manufacture.

Common salt and rock salt form the basic raw materials for a variety of chemicals essential, for example, in the textile and soap-making industries, so they have their chief market in the chemical industry.

Important area of the concentration of common and rock salts are Cheshire, Worcestershire and Teesside. Deposits which exist 24 — 26 m below the surface repre­sent the site of an inland sea in former geological times, the waters of which have long since been evaporated.

Certain other less common minerals are also obtained in Britain, although in smaller quantities: gypsum occurs in semicrystalline form and is used to pro­duce plaster of Paris and alabaster. Potash has been proved to exist in workable quantities in North Yorkshire. Peat is widespread on upland moors or lowland fens and dug for fuel. The main peat areas are the Central Plain, Donegal and the western peninsulas of Ireland. It is now being used for the generation of electricity, but is still used domestically in North-West Scotland, the Southern Uplands and the Cheviots.

A brief survey of the natural resources of Great Britain reveals the absence here of many minerals which are important for the development of a number of branches of modern economy.

Water

Britain's water supplies are obtained partly from surface sources such as mountain lakes, streams impounded in upland gathering grounds and river intakes, and partly from underground sources by means of wells, adits and boreholes.

Conclusion

Speaking about geographical position, The British Isles consist of two large islands – Great Britain and Ireland – separated by the Irish Sea, and a lot of small islands, the main of which are the Isle of Wight in the English Channel, Anglesea and the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea, the Hebrides – a group of islands off the north-western coast of Scotland, and two groups of islands lying to the north of Scotland: the Orkney Islands and the Shetland Islands.

The surface of Great Britain varies greatly. The northern and western part of the country is mountains and is called the Highlands. All the rest (south, east and centre) is a vast plain which is called the Lowlands. The mountains are not very high. The coastline of Great Britain is greatly indented, especially in the west and north-west where the mountains come close to the coast. The rivers are not long. The rivers of Great Britain are not very long but usually deep and never freeze in winter. The longest and deepest rivers are the Severn and Mersey, the Thames on which stands the capital of Great Britain - London.

Lying in the middle latitudes and surrounded by waters Britain has a mild and temperate climate. The climate of the British Isles is generally classified as cool, temperate, though in the Highlands of Scotland it is severe. The best season for the English people is spring when everything is in full bloom, there is much sunshine and it is rather warm. Autumn and winter are famous for their fogs and rains. In big industrial cities fog turns into "smog" (smoke + fog). It is a very unpleasant time. The usual tempera­ture in winter very seldom falls below 3-5 degrees Centigrade. The fauna or animal life of Britain is much like that of north-western Europe, to which it was once joined.

Great Britain is not very rich in mineral resources. Nevertheless it has not bad deposits of coal, and iron ore and vast deposits of oil and gas that were discovered in the North Sea. Britain is a major world producer of oil, natural gas and coal. It’s self-sufficient in energy and in other resources.

In conclusion, I want to say that Great Britain is a highly developed industrial country with picturesque nature. I haven’t been to England yet and I’d like to visit this magnificent country very much.

Literature

1.      Голицынский Ю.Б. Великобритания – СПб.: КАРО, 2003.

2.      Паволоцкий В.М. Discovering Britain – СПб.: КАРО, 2003.

3.      Барановский Л.С., Козикис Д.Д. Panorama of Great Britain – М.: Высшая школа, 1990.

4.      Mikhailov N.N. English Cultural Studies – M.: Academia, 2003.

5.      http://www.coolsoch.ru/arh/angl/595.htm

6.      http://www.fos.ru/foreign/8204.html

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