Baltic Sea

From Citizendium
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This article is a stub and thus not approved.
Main Article
Discussion
Related Articles  [?]
Bibliography  [?]
External Links  [?]
Citable Version  [?]
 
This editable Main Article is under development and subject to a disclaimer.

The Baltic Sea, located in Northern Europe, has an area of about 146,000mi² (377,000km²) and includes the Gulfs of Bothnia, Finland, Riga and Gdansk. It drains into the Kattegat area via the Danish straits, and can be reached via the Skagerrak strait from the North Sea. It is surrounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, mainland Europe and the islands of Denmark; the other countries which border the Baltic Sea are Sweden, Finland (with the Aland Islands between them), Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Germany. The Kiel Canal is one of the main routes into the Baltic Sea, and the region is important for shipping, connecting large coastal cities and ports such as Saint Petersburg, Stockholm, Riga, Helsinki and Copenhagen.