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Physical geography
Physical geography
A ring of coastal mountains surrounds low central plains.
The highest peak is Carrauntoohil (Irish: Corrán Tuathail) in County Kerry, which is 1,041 m (3,414 ft).
The River Shannon, at 386 km (240 miles) is the longest river in Ireland.
The island's lush vegetation, a product of its mild climate and frequent rainfall, earns it the sobriquet "Emerald Isle".
The island's area is 84,412 km² (32,591 square miles).
Ireland's least arable land lies in the south-western and western counties.[citation needed] These areas are largely mountainous and rocky, with green panoramic vistas.
Climate
Overall, Ireland has a mild, but changeable, Oceanic climate with few extremes.
The warmest recorded air temperature was 33.3 °C (91.94 °F) at Kilkenny Castle, County Kilkenny on 26 June 1887, where as the lowest recorded temperature was −19.1 °C (−2.38 °F) at Markree Castle, County Sligo on 16 January 1881.
Other statistics show that the greatest recorded annual rainfall was 3,964.9 mm (156.1 in) in the Ballaghbeena Gap in 1960.
The driest year on record was 1887, with only 356.6 mm (14.0 in) of rain recorded at Glasnevin, while the longest period of absolute drought was in Limerick where there was no recorded rainfall over 38 days during April and May 1938.
The climate is typically insular, and as a result of the moderating moist winds which ordinarily prevail from the South-Western Atlantic, it is temperate, avoiding the extremes in temperature of many other areas in the world at similar latitudes.
Precipitation falls throughout the year, but is light overall, particularly in the east.
The west, however, tends to be wetter on average and prone to the full force of Atlantic storms, more especially in the late autumn and winter months, which occasionally bring destructive winds and high rainfall totals to these areas, as well as snow and hail.
The regions of North Galway and East Mayo have the highest incidents of recorded lightning annually (5 to 10 days per year).
Munster in the south records the least snow with Ulster in the north more prone to snow.
Some areas along the south and southwest coasts have not had any lying snow since February 1991.[citation needed] .
Inland areas are warmer in summer, and colder in winter – there are usually around 40 days of below freezing temperatures (0 °C/32 °F) at inland weather stations, but only 10 days at coastal stations.
Ireland is sometimes affected by heat waves, most recently in 1995, 2003, 2006.
Geology
Geologically the island consists of a number of provinces – in the far west around Galway and Donegal is a medium to high grade metamorphic and igneous complex of Caledonide (Scottish Highland) affinity.
Across southeast Ulster and extending southwest to Longford and south to Navan is a province of Ordovician and Silurian rocks with more affinities with the Southern Uplands province of Scotland.
Further south, there is an area along the Wexford coast of granite intrusives into more Ordovician and Silurian rocks with a more Welsh affinity.
In the southwest, around Bantry Bay and the mountains of Macgillicuddy's Reeks, is an area of substantially deformed but only lightly metamorphosed Devonian-aged rocks.
This partial ring of "hard rock" geology is covered by a blanket of Carboniferous limestone over the centre of the country, giving rise to the comparatively fertile and famously "lush" landscape of the country.
The west coast district of The Burren around Lisdoonvarna has well developed karst features.
Elsewhere, significant stratiform lead-zinc mineralisation is found in the limestones (around Silvermines and Tynagh).
Hydrocarbon exploration is ongoing.
The first major find was the Kinsale Head gas field off Cork/Cobh by Marathon Oil in the mid-1970s.
More recently, in 1999, Enterprise Oil announced the discovery of the Corrib Gas Field.
This has increased activity off the west coast in parallel with the "West of Shetland" step-out development from the North Sea hydrocarbon province.
The Helvick oil field, estimated to contain over 28 million barrels (4,500,000 m3) of oil, is another recent discovery.
Source: CIA Factbook, Wikipedia
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