The Arctic Circle Lies At The Northernmost Point Of The Earth

Greenland and Finland The Arctic Circle lies at the northernmost point of the Earth. Several countries have areas that are within the Arctic Circle. Those countries are Canada, United States of America, Russia, Greenland, Finland, Norway, Iceland, and Sweden. For decades this cold and snowy part of the word was a mystery to those outside of it. Within the last decade many television reality shows have brought the reality of this cold region of the world into clear focus for those of us that have never experienced it. Television shows such as â€Å"Deadliest Catch†, â€Å"Ice Road Truckers†, etc. Even though many of these countries share many similarities they also can be starkly different. Two countries within the Arctic Circle that†¦show more content†¦Greenland is comprised of 836,330 square miles of surface area. This is three times the size of Texas (Clark, 1943). The northwestern section of Finland is located on the Scandinavian Peninsula, while the reminder of the co untry lies in Europe. Finland only has a surface area of 130,559 square miles (â€Å"Finland in facts, 2016†). The area of Greenland is nearly six and a half times greater than that of Finland. With Greenland being three times the state of Texas, comparatively Kentucky is six and a half times smaller than Texas. The vastness of Greenland dwarfs the land mass of Finland. Another noteworthy lithospheric difference between the two countries lies in the tectonic differences. Greenland is located on a single tectonic plate with no fault lines within its borders. Therefore, Greenland has no volcanic activity whatsoever. Moreover, there is no evidence that it has had volcanic activity in millions of years. With this low amount of volcanic activity, Greenland possesses some of the most ancient rocks on the planet. These rocks have been left undisturbed, because of the lack of volcanic activity. With no fault lines Greenland should not be effected by earthquakes, however glacial earthquakes are quite powerful. These glacial earthquakes have been attributed to the effects of global warming on the glacial ice that sits atop the majority of Greenland’s surface. With the calving of the ice creating a gigaton, or a