The Central Swedish lowland () is a large region of low relief and altitude in Sweden spanning from the Swedish West Coast at

Bohuslän Bohuslän () is a Provinces of Sweden, Swedish province in Götaland, on the northernmost part of the country's west coast. It is bordered by Dalsland to the northeast, Västergötland to the southeast, the Skagerrak arm of the North Sea to the ...

to Stockholm archipelago and Roslagen at the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

. The Central Swedish lowland forms a broad east-west trending belt north of the South Swedish highlands and south of the Norrland terrain. Traditionally the heartland of Sweden due to its large population and agricultural resources the region benefits additionally from the proximity of

hydropower Hydropower (from Ancient Greek -, "water"), also known as water power or water energy, is the use of falling or fast-running water to Electricity generation, produce electricity or to power machines. This is achieved by energy transformation, ...

, forest and

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2011): Mi ...

resources. The lowland is also at a good position for trade with the Baltic region. These advantages are reflected in the location of Sweden's capital,

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

, at the eastern end of the lowlands. Most of Sweden's manufacturing industries lies in this region.

Relief, soil and vegetation

The reason on how the lowlands reached its sunken position relative to other parts of Sweden is not clear. Possibly its boundaries are flexures in

Earth's crust Earth's crust is its thick outer shell of rock, referring to less than one percent of the planet's radius and volume. It is the top component of the lithosphere, a solidified division of Earth's layers that includes the crust and the upper ...

rather, the possibility of geological faults forming its boundaries is ruled out as none of them have been found. Much of the

Sub-Cambrian peneplain The sub-Cambrian peneplain is an ancient, extremely flat, erosion surface (peneplain) that has been exhumed and exposed by erosion from under Cambrian strata over large swathes of Fennoscandia. Eastward, where this peneplain dips below Cambrian an ...

, that is otherways common in eastern Sweden, is preserved on the Central Swedish lowland. The relief of the region is contain various areas of joint valley terrain (), this means that the landscape is dissected by valleys following

joint A joint or articulation (or articular surface) is the connection made between bones, ossicles, or other hard structures in the body which link an animal's skeletal system into a functional whole.Saladin, Ken. Anatomy & Physiology. 7th ed. McGraw- ...

s, faults and other weakness zones in the

Precambrian The Precambrian ( ; or pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pC, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of t ...

shield rocks. NNW-SSE trending eskers, that are usually forested, crosses the lowlands. In

Västergötland Västergötland (), also known as West Gothland or the Latinized version Westrogothia in older literature, is one of the 25 traditional non-administrative provinces of Sweden (''landskap'' in Swedish), situated in the southwest of Sweden. Vä ...

the lowland contain a series of hills made up

Silurian The Silurian ( ) is a geologic period and system spanning 23.5 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, Mya. The Silurian is the third and shortest period of t ...

-aged

sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock (geology), rock formed by the cementation (geology), cementation of sediments—i.e. particles made of minerals (geological detritus) or organic matter (biological detritus)—that have been accumulated or de ...

, these are; Kinnekulle, Halleberg, Hunneberg and Billingen. The region forms a belt of fertile soils suitable for agriculture that interrupts the forested and till-coated lands to the north and south. The soil types of the Central Swedish lowland include fine grained

sediment Sediment is a solid material that is transported to a new location where it is deposited. It occurs naturally and, through the processes of weathering and erosion, is broken down and subsequently sediment transport, transported by the action of ...

s, like

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

s, as patent materials. This is because the whole region is below the highest coastline () since deglaciation, allowing for marine and lacustrine

sedimentation Sedimentation is the deposition of sediments. It takes place when particles in suspension settle out of the fluid in which they are entrained and come to rest against a barrier. This is due to their motion through the fluid in response to th ...

before

post-glacial rebound Post-glacial rebound (also called isostatic rebound or crustal rebound) is the rise of land masses after the removal of the huge weight of ice sheets during the last glacial period, which had caused isostatic depression. Post-glacial rebound an ...

bought the lowland above sea level. Before the expansion of agriculture fertile soils were occupied by contiguous broad-leaved tree forest where maples, oaks, ashes, small-leaved lime and common hazel grew. The Central Swedish lowland does however also contain soils of poor quality, particularly in hills where Scots pine and Norway spruce grows on top of thin till soils.

Hydrography

Sweden's four largest lakes, Vänern,

Vättern Vättern ( , ) is the second-largest lake in Sweden, after Vänern, and the sixth-largest lake in Europe. It is a long, finger-shaped body of fresh water in south central Sweden, to the southeast of Vänern, pointing at the tip of Scandinavia. ...

, Mälaren and Hjälmaren, all lie within the lowlands. The Central Swedish lowland is one of Sweden's ten

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and Pore space in soil, soil pore spaces and in the fractures of stratum, rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available fresh water in the world is groundwater. A unit ...

regions. The groundwater of the coast of the Central Swedish lowlands have high amounts of

chloride The term chloride refers to a compound or molecule that contains either a chlorine anion (), which is a negatively charged chlorine atom, or a non-charged chlorine atom covalently bonded to the rest of the molecule by a single bond (). The pr ...

as result of the presence of fossil sea water. The soils developed on fine-grained sediments are better buffers against groundwater acidification than tills found elsewhere in Sweden.

Notes

References

{{coord, 59, N, 15, E, type:landmark_region:SE_dim:500000, display=title Depressions of Europe Götaland Svealand Plains of Sweden

Relief, soil and vegetation

Hydrography

See also

Notes

References