Europe is a peninsula that make up the western fifth of the Eurasian landmass. It has a higher ratio of coast to has a landmass than any other continent or subcontinent. Its maritime borders the Arctic Ocean to the north, the are made up of Atlantic Ocean to the west, and the Mediterranean, Black, and Caspian south relief in Europe shows great seas to the Land variation within relatively small areas. The southern regions are more mountainous, while moving north the terrain descends from the high Alps, Pyrenees, and Carpathians, through hilly uplands, into broad, low northern plains, which are vast in the east. extended lowland is known as the Great European This Plain, and at its heart lies the North German Plain. An arc of uplands also exists along the north-western seaboard, which begins in the western parts of the islands of Britain and Ireland, and then continues along the mountainous fjord cut spine of Norway.