Greece has the 11th
largest coastline of all countries in the world, and has many rivers running
through it, which makes it a perfect place to study and demonstrate the power
of hydrology. Hydrology is the study of Earth's water cycle and the distribution of water.
The inland mountains of Greece form
a high point that water can flow down from to the coast line; the ultimate
destination for rivers. The mountains push the clouds up, forcing them to drop
water in the form of rain, and this in turn becomes the rivers that are wide
spread across the country. These are well above the water table level, which
makes these influent streams. The picture below shows the river basins of
Europe, and of those the basins 8 of them are in Greece. Those basins are the
Struma, Drin, Vardar, Vijose, Nestos, Velaka, Rezvaya, and Maritsa river basins.
The picture second picture gives a better view of the rivers. Most of these
rivers end up draining into the Aegean Sea, with only the Drin and Vijose
draining into the Ionian Sea. The picture below shows the many rivers that run
through the Greek countryside.
 |
| This is a picture of the International River Basins of Europe. The Greek river basins are just below the Danube basin and they are shared with Bulgaria, Macedonia, Tirana, and Turkey. |
 |
| This is a political map showing the rivers of the basins from the above picture. It shows which rivers cross through the multiple countries Greece shares these basins with. |
Greece is well known for their volcanoes, and these
volcanoes have in turn covered the land, over time, with volcanic soil, or
andisols. The andisols along with the many rivers running through the country
have been a benefit to the Greek agriculture since the earliest of Greek
civilizations and they continue to see this benefit today.
Citations:
Political map pic from:
International River Basins of Europe:
