The Isle of Man is a small archipelago located in Western Europe in the Irish Sea which lies at the heart of the British Isles . It is equidistant from the Ireland (west) and Britain (East) with 50 kilometers away from the coast and is located in southern Scotland and north of Wales.

The main island of the archipelago, also known as the Isle of Man, surrounded by three other small islands: Calf of Man , St. Michael and St. Patrick and several reefs and rocks.

Physical Geography

Satellite image of the Isle of Man.

Topography

The Isle of Man , an island lying north-east-south-west, has an area of 572 km ^2, is 52 kilometers long (north to south) to 22 km wide at maximum (from east to west) and has a coastline totaling 160 km in length . This relatively small size is offset by a variety of landscapes: the island has two mountain peaks in Snaefell (621 m) located north and south of the island and separated by a valley cross-linking Douglas to Peel . Around these two massive and mainly on the north and south ends of the island range from Plains .

The ribs are formed of cliffs and headlands flanking the rocky beaches of sand lodged in the bottom of bays and coves . These ribs are cut low except in the south of the island where they draw many capes and bays around Port Erin , Port St Mary and Castletown and form two peninsulas : the Meayll Peninsula and the peninsula of Langness , former island attached to Man with a tombolo.

The most north of the Isle of Man, the Point of Ayre and the furthest point east, Maughold Point , delimit the largest bay of the island, the bay of Ramsey , widely open to the north East. The most south of the Isle of Man is in turn formed by Dreswick Point on the peninsula of Langness.

Climate

Snow on top of Snaefell.

The climate of the Isle of Man is typically oceanic with the effects of the North Atlantic drift. It is thus characterized by a very gentle and low variation in temperature : February is usually the coldest month of the year with 4.9 C mean temperature (the periods of frost and snow are very infrequent and not not for long), while July and August are the warmest with a maximum temperature of 17.6 C, the maximum temperature recorded on the Isle of Man is 28.9 C in the Ronaldsway .

The winds prevailing from the southwest bring the rains usually in April, May and June are the wettest months while that of February is the driest . The months of May, June and July are the sunniest, the storms are rare .

Despite its small size, the Isle of Man is subject to local variations in climate. Thus, the fog often affects the south and east coasts of the island even in the summer but it is less common on the coast north and west . The altitude also plays a role, mists and rains are most frequent. The Snaefell receives two to four times more precipitation than the Ronaldsway area located southeast of the island where the annual average of 863 millimeters .

Hydrography

The Isle of Man has a few rivers , the longest is the Sulby with 17 kilometers in length .

Flora and fauna

The main plant formations of the Isle of Man are the forests , the heaths and pastures .

Geology

View on the northern slopes of Slieu Dhoo.

The heights of the Isle of Man are made of the same rocks that form the Highlands of Scotland and the Mourne Mountains in Northern Ireland .

Indeed, there are 410 million years the Iapetus Ocean was closed in favor of the merger of two continental masses. The sedimentary rocks which covered the bottom were found folded and then projected at high altitude, forming a chain of mountains . Some of his folded sedimentary rocks are still visible at Sugarloaf and Chasms. These mountains have subsequently been eroded almost completely under the influence of weather and ice caps is the last of which are completely removed from the island at the end of the last glaciation .

Natural Resources

The Isle of Man experienced mining deposits when zinc , of copper and lead were mined since the prehistoric times to the early ^twentieth century .

Two-thirds of the Isle of Man are grown without irrigation , mainly in the plains of northern coastal and south of the island . The remaining land is occupied by the towns and villages, forests , meadows and moors.

Human geography

Administrative divisions

The Isle of Man is divided into six main divisions called sheading. These six sheadings are themselves split into 24 districts with the status of city, village or parish . These districts are then either combined or divided into 15 electoral districts (in English Constituencies Election) to elect the 24 members serving on the Tynwald , the local parliament.

Occupation of Space

The majority of the population, infrastructure and crops are clustered along the coast and on the plains north and south of the island.

Economic geography

The economic capital of the Isle of Man is Douglas , on the east coast, because this city, the most populous island, has a port in deep water . She is also the seat of government of the Isle of Man and is the main gateway for visitors and goods from the United Kingdom and Ireland.

The Isle of Man has only one airport , the latter being located on the southeast coast, in the region of Ronaldsway , near Castletown . The main port of the island is that of Douglas, Ramsey , north-east, and Castletown, south, being the other two main ports of the island . The Isle of Man also has 800 kilometers of roads paved and 65 km of railway track (7 km in standard gauge and 58 miles narrow gauge ).

References

See also

External Links

• (In) The World Factbook - Isle of Man

• Gateway to the Isle of Man
• Geography portal
• Portal insular world