Geology of Europe

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The geology of Europe is varied and complex, and gives rise to the wide variety of landscapes found across the continent, from the Scottish Highlands to the rolling plains of Hungary. Europe's most significant feature is the dichotomy between highland and mountainous Southern Europe and a vast, partially underwater, northern plain ranging from England in the west to the Ural Mountains in the east. These two halves are separated by the Pyrenees and the Alps-Carpathians mountain chain. The northern plains are delimited in the west by the Scandinavian Mountains and the mountainous parts of the British Isles. The southern mountainous region is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea. Major shallow water bodies submerging parts of the northern plains are the Celtic Sea, the North Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Barents Sea.

From the standpoint of

Moving north from the Alps and other ranges, tectonic activity largely fades away in the stable Baltic craton. One exception to this trend is a hot spot, rising from the mantle underneath central Germany, which has been responsible in geologic time for volcanoes such as the Vogelsberg in Hesse and currently provides heat to hot springs and lakes in the region.

• the Baltica craton - Scandinavia, Finland, the Baltic states, Russia, northern Poland and northern Germany,
• Avalonian fragments - England, Ireland, Netherlands, northern Germany, etc.,
• Laurentian (North American) fragments - Western Norway and Scotland,
• Gondwana fragments - Spain, Italy, Malta, possibly belonging to the Cimmerian Arc,
• Balkan Alps
  /Carpathian complex,
• the Anatolian part of the Cimmerian Arc originating from Gondwana.

This section is an excerpt from Geological history of Europe.[edit]

The formation of Europe as a coherent landmass dates to after the breakup of Pangaea, taking place during the Oligocene and completed by the early Neogene period, some 20 million years ago.

• Geography of Europe
• European Cenozoic Rift System