The Haparanda archipelago () is a group of 792 Swedish islands in the north part of the
Bay of Bothnia
The Bothnian Bay or Bay of Bothnia (; ) is the northernmost part of the Gulf of Bothnia, which is in turn the northern part of the Baltic Sea. The land holding the bay is Post-glacial rebound, still rising after the weight of ice-age glaciers ha ...
. The islands are used for recreation in the summer months. They are icebound during the winter.
Location
The north of the bay of Bothnia contains a large archipelago area.
The islands in the Swedish sector make up the
Norrbotten archipelago.
It is divided into the archipelagos of
Piteå
Piteå (; ) is a locality and the seat of Piteå Municipality in Norrbotten County, Sweden. Piteå is Sweden's 58th largest city, with a population of 23,326.
Geography
Piteå is located at the mouth of the Pite River (), at the shore of ...
(550 islands),
Luleå
Luleå ( , , locally ; ; ) is a Cities in Sweden, city on the coast of northern Sweden, and the County Administrative Boards of Sweden, capital of Norrbotten County, the northernmost county in Sweden. Luleå has 48,728 inhabitants in its urban ...
(1,312 islands),
Kalix (792 islands) and Haparanda (652 islands).
Due to
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 ...
the land is rising at from annually, so the shoreline can retreat by as much as in one person's lifetime.
As a result, the islands are growing in size but the waters and harbors are becoming shallower.
The Swedish
Haparanda Archipelago National Park () lies within the Haparanda group of islands. It includes the larger islands of
Sandskär and
Seskar Furö, and some smaller islands and skerries. All of these islands have emerged in the last 1,500 years as the bed of the bay has risen.
Some of the other islands in Haparanda archipelago include
Hanhinkari,
Kataja
Kataja is an islet south of Haparanda in Norrbotten. It is the easternmost point of Sweden and it is part of the Haparanda archipelago. The islet has an area of . It is about long and wide.
The name "Kataja" is Finnish for juniper. The island ...
,
Seskarö,
Skomakaren,
Stora Hamnskär,
Stora Hepokari
Stora Hepokari is an island in the northeast of the Swedish sector of the Bothnian Bay, in the Haparanda archipelago.
Location
Stora Hepokari lies in the Haparanda archipelago, the part of the Norrbotten archipelago that is included in the H ...
and
Torne-Furö.
Kataja is divided between Sweden and Finland. The border was established in 1809 between two islands, a larger Swedish one called Kataja and a smaller Finnish one called Inakari. In the years since then, post-glacial rebound has caused the land in the region to rise relative to sea level, joining the two islands.
Climate
The archipelago is only south of the
Arctic Circle
The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the northernmost of the five major circle of latitude, circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth at about 66° 34' N. Its southern counterpart is the Antarctic Circle.
The Arctic Circl ...
, so there is daylight for 24 hours in the summer, and full moon all day in the winter.
The waters around the archipelago are brackish, with less the 10% of the salt content of the Atlantic.
The sea freezes in January and remain frozen until March–April.
See also
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List of islands of the Haparanda archipelago
References
Citations
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Haparanda archipelago
Swedish islands in the Baltic
Archipelagoes of Sweden
Landforms of Norrbotten County
Gulf of Bothnia
Haparanda Municipality