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International Island Games Association FAROE ISLANDS LOCATION AND COMMUNICATION LINKS
The Faroe Islands are situated in the North Atlantic 430 km south-east of Iceland, 600 km west of Norway and a good 300 km north of Scotland. The Faroe Islands are in the same time zone as Britain. The distance to Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, with which the Faroe Islands have constitutional links, is about 1,300 km. The islands are of volcanic origin and part of the North Atlantic basalt region stretching from Ireland to Greenland. The Ice Age glaciers formed an archipelago of mountains, deep valleys, narrow fords and straits. The basalt covers older geological strata which may contain oil and gas. The climate is typical oceanic: humid, changeable and windy. In Tórshavn the temperature in the coldest month averages 3°C and in the warmest 11°C. The shortest day is 5 hours and the longest 19Â/2 hours. There are no woods, but plenty of grass. A mere 6% of the land is under cultivation while the rest is reserved for the grazing of 70,000 sheep and some cattle and horses. Birds are plentiful, especially sea-birds, but other animal life is sparse. The sea around the Faroe Islands is influenced by the meeting of the warm Gulf Stream and cold northern currents, rich in nutritional matter. This guarantees rather stable ocean temperatures, between 5° and 10°C, favouring fish and animal life. | |
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