Geography of Spain

Geographic location

The Iberian peninsula include Spain, Portugal, Andorra, the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar and a very small area of France. It forms a huge octogonal plateau in the southwest of Europe and it is located in a temperate area between 43º 47' 24'' N (Estaca de Bares) and 36º 00' 03'' S (Punta de Tarifa), and between 7º 00' 29'' E (Cap de Creus) and 5º 36' 40'' W (Cabo de Tourinam). Spain is the 80% of the 580,825 sq. meters of the Iberian peninsula. It is bordered by the Cantabric Sea (north), France and Andorra (NE), the Mediterranean Sea (E) and (S), Atlantic Ocean (S) and (W) and Portugal (W).

Compared to most other countries, Spain, with an area of 505 957 square kilometers, occupies only a small part of the World map. However, compared to the countries of Europe, Spain is the third largest country after Russia and France. The area above includes most of the Iberian Peninsula, about 493,486 square km. out of a total of 580,760, the Balearic Islands 4,992 square km. and the Canary Island 7,447 square km. Two Spanish cities in North Africa are also part of Spain: Ceuta 18 sq. km. and Melilla 14 sq. km.

The most important islands of Spain are the Balearics and the Canaries. The first, located at East of the Iberian peninsula, western Mediterranean Sea, include 4 major islands: Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza, Formentera and Cabrera. The Canary Islands are located to the south in the Atlantic Ocean, off the African coast, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara, include 7 major islans: The islands include (from largest to smallest): Tenerife, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro.

Highlands, mountains and plateaus predominate making Spain the 2nd highest country in Europe behind Switzerland, with an average height of 600 meters.
The highest peaks are:
- Teide (Tenerife), 3,719 m.
- Mulhacen (Sierra Nevada), 3,478 m.
- Aneto (Pyrenees), 3,404 m.
- Veleta (Sierra Nevada), 3,394 m.
- Posets (Pyrenees), 3375 m.

Natural Resources

Iberia, Hesperia or Hispania were the old names of Spain and was known and famous for its natural resources, particularly the abundance and variety of minerals. This fact attracted the attention of warring peoples, so Spain became a battleground for the armies of Carthage and Rome. Even before that, the voyages of the Phoenicians to the "Pillars of Hercules" (Strait of Gibraltar) and beyond to the Cassiterides could be explained by the existence of silver in Cartagena (Murcia) and Sierra Morena (Andalusia), copper in Huelva (Andalusia) and gold and tin in Galicia. Even at the beginning of this century, Spain had some of the most important deposits of various minerals, and the economic development in some regions like the Basque provinces and Asturias, was based on it. Today the situation has changed, but Spain is still one of Europe's richest countries in mineral production.

Nowadays, the mineral production in Spain is focused on non-energy production sources. Globally, and considering only the value of metallic and nonmetallic minerals and mining, Spain occupies the ninth place and the first one among all the countries of the European Union. Adding the energy producing materials (coal, oil, gas and uranium) Spain down to the 38th position in the world ranking. If we consider only energy products, Spain is in the 40th position. Thus, mining represents only 15% of Gross National Product and employs only 85,000 people, distributed in 3,700 mining areas.

The diversity of the Spanish mineral production is large, with the exception of energy-producing minerals. We can find all kind of minerals. However, only seventeen are extracted in significant quantities, iron, pyrite, copper, lead, tin, mercury and tungsten (metallic minerals) and refractory argillite, bentonite, quartz, fluorous feldspar, glauberite, magnetite and sea and potassium salts and sepiolite (non-metallic minerals).

Although varied, the production of metallic minerals is not enought for satisfying the needs of domestic demands. On the other hand, the production of non-metallic minerals exceeds the needs of Spain and exportation is needed.

Hydrography

Of the roughly 1,800 rivers and streams in Spain, only the Tagus is more than 960 kilometers long; all but 90 extend less than 96 kilometers. These shorter rivers carry small volumes of water on an irregular basis, and they have seasonally dry river beds; however, when they do flow, they often are swift and torrential. Most major rivers rise in the mountains rimming or dissecting the Central Plateau (Meseta Central) and flow westward across the plateau through Portugal to empty into the Atlantic Ocean. One significant exception is the River Ebro, which flows eastward to the Mediterranean. Rivers in the extreme northwest and in the narrow northern coastal plain drain directly into the Atlantic Ocean. The northwestern coastline is also truncated by rias, waterbodies similar to fjords.

The major rivers flowing westward through the Meseta Central include the River Douro, the Tagus, the river Guadiana, and the river Guadalquivir. The river Guadalquivir is one of the most significant rivers in Spain because it irrigates a fertile valley, thus creating a rich agricultural area, and because it is navigable inland, making Seville the only inland river port for ocean-going traffic in Spain. The major river in the northwest region is the river Mino.

There are nine major rivers flowing into the Mediterranean and the Atlantic:
• River Mino (310 km.), River Douro (895 km.), River Tagus (1.007 km.), River Guadiana (778 km.) and River Guadalquivir (657km.) (Atlantic Ocean)
• River Segura (325 km.), River Jucar (498 km.), River Turia (280 km.) and River Ebro (910 km.) (Mediterranean Sea)

In the north, the rivers have a very short course, due to the proximity of their sources to the sea. The main ones are River Bidasoa, River Nervion, River Sella, River Nalón, River Navia and River Eo.