Soil and bedrock

The Fennoscandian Shield shares a similar geology and metallogeny with the ancient shields in Canada, Australia, Brazil and South Africa. The shield is situated in the north-westernmost part of the East European Craton and is the largest exposed area of Precambrian rocks in Europe. The shield constitutes large parts of Fennoscandia in Finland, NW Russia, Norway and Sweden. Fennoscandian Shield consists of Precambrian bedrock without almost no younger sedimentary rock layers on it. Finland’s bedrock is extremely old and stable. However, the soil layers on top of the bedrock are geologically speaking very young.

The Earth’s crust consists of soil and bedrock. The formation of soil layers in Helsinki, as well as soil layers of most of Finland, was affected by the progress and melting of glaciers in the latest Ice Age, the structure and composition of the bedrock, and the evolution of the Baltic Sea.

The typical geological features of the southern Finnish coastal areas characterize Helsinki: there is an abundance of rocky hills partially covered by thin layers of moraine, and there are valleys and flat terrain in which the top soil consists of clay or silt.    

Helsinki residents can learn about the Helsinki soil and bedrock with the help of the free-of-charge Helsinki Map Service > Environment and nature > Geotechnical maps, which contains soil and bedrock maps as well as information about ground water. 

Professional designers and engineers are supported in construction projects by a Soili service against a fee. The service provides all available soil and bedrock investigation information at construction sites.

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06.12.2019 19:22