Because "affords outstanding opportunities for the understanding of the important processes that formed the glaciated and land uplift areas of the Earth's surface", the Kvarken Archipelago (Finland) and the High Coast (Sweden), situated in the Gulf of Bothnia, were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2006. The 5,600 islands of the archipelago feature unusual ridged washboard moraines (De Geer moraines), formed by the melting of the continental ice sheet, 10,000 to 24,000 years ago. As a consequence of the process of rapid glacio-isostatic uplift, whereby the land, previously weighed down under the weight of a glacier, lifts from the sea, the islands appear and unite, peninsulas expand, and lakes evolve from bays and develop into marshes and peat fens.Vegetation is typical of the west Eurasian taiga with a mix of alpine, boreal forest and wetland communities.
About the stamps
All five stamps are cross-shaped self-adhesives stamps. The ones with the face value 0.20 EUR are part of a series of two, issued on January 24, 2011 and depicting a birch bud (it's in this postcard) and a birch leaf (0.30 EUR). The others, with the face value 0.10 EUR, are part of a series depicting the Finnish Archipelago, about which I wrote here.
References
High Coast / Kvarken Archipelago - UNESCO official website
Kvarken - Wikipedia
sender: Anu Nurmi (direct swap)
sent from Kouvola (Kymenlaakso / Finland), on 02.05.2013
No comments:
Post a Comment