What is a Fjord and how are they formed?
What is a Fjord?
What is a fjord? We’ve posted a bit on fjords recently: Stavanger: Gateway to Fjord Norway, Sognefjord, King of the fjords and Fjord Norway Kayaking are just a few of the posts. But in all of those posts we forgot to mention what a fjord actually is. Hopefully, if you don’t know this post will answer the questions ‘What is a Fjord?’, ‘How are fjords formed?’, ‘Are there any fjords outside Norway?’ and a couple of others.
Where does the word fjord come from?
Before we get on to ‘What is a fjord?’ let’s look at where the name come from. ‘Fjord’ actually comes from old Norse. Old Norse was a language spoken in Scandinavia until the 13th century. Modern Scandinavian languages, such as Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Icelandic and Faroese, developed from Old Norse. Fjord, then, is derived from the Old Norse word ‘fjörðr’ meaning ‘where you travel across’. The English word ‘ferry’ has the same origin.
What is a Fjord?
‘A fjord is a long, deep, narrow body of water’ says National Geographic’s Fjord Learning site. But if that’s it, how is a fjord different to sea? Well, it’s not quite that simple – to add to the definition, a fjord has steep land on three sides. Essentially, a fjord is a u-shaped, undersea valley.
Now we’ve answered ‘What is a Fjord?’ where can you find them? Do they exist outside Norway? The most beautiful fjord is generally considered to be the Geirangerfjord in Norway, though some other lovely examples can be found on coasts of countries as distant as Chile, Greenland and New Zealand. What’s special about these areas which allowed fjords to form? Most fjords were created by glaciers during the Earth’s ice ages. Glaciers are essentially rivers of ice. As they move at ‘glacial pace’ 🙂 over the the land, the weight of the glacier itself as well as its movement leave scars, carving the rocks beneath. Glacial activity is more intense inland which is why fjords are usually deepest inland. Oslofjord, carries the ‘fjord’ names, but it is actually a ‘false fjord’. It is a rift valley and wasn’t created by glaciers.
In the post picture, you can see the Sognefjord which at over 200 km is the longest Norwegian fjord. This was captured on the Fjord Norway road trip earlier in the year, close to Nordrevik in Sogn og Fjordane.
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