Getterön is a

peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula. Etymology The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...

Varberg Municipality Varberg Municipality () is a municipality in Halland County, in southwest Sweden. Its seat is in Varberg. It was formed in 1971 through the amalgamation of the ''City of Varberg'' and the surrounding rural municipalities. There are 25 original ...

Halland County Halland County (, ) is a county ('' län'') on the western coast of Sweden. It corresponds roughly to the cultural and historical province of Halland. The capital is Halmstad. Prince Julian, the son of Prince Carl Philip, is Duke of Halland. ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, immediately northwest of the municipal seat

Varberg Varberg () is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Varberg Municipality, Halland County, Sweden, with 35,782 inhabitants in 2019. Varberg and all of Halland are well known for their "typical west coast" sandy beaches. In Varberg th ...

. Getterön was an

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

until 1936, when the

sound In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid. In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the br ...

between Getterön and the mainland was filled out and a road was built.

Etymology

The name Getterön is very old. It is derived from the

Viking Age The Viking Age (about ) was the period during the Middle Ages when Norsemen known as Vikings undertook large-scale raiding, colonising, conquest, and trading throughout Europe and reached North America. The Viking Age applies not only to their ...

or even earlier. The

spelling Spelling is a set of conventions for written language regarding how graphemes should correspond to the sounds of spoken language. Spelling is one of the elements of orthography, and highly standardized spelling is a prescriptive element. Spelli ...

has varied, for example ''Gederöen'' or ''Gäderöen'' in 1645, ''Geterholmen'' in 1691, ''Getter ön'' in 1733, ''Geterön'' 1734 and ''Gietterön'' in 1752. The current spelling ''Getterön'' was not widely recognized until the 1900s, but appears in documents as early as in the 18th century and used in the public

land registry Land registration is any of various systems by which matters concerning ownership, possession, or other rights in land are formally recorded (usually with a government agency or department) to provide evidence of title, facilitate transactions, ...

in 1825. The name's meaning is unclear. Probably there is an etymological link with the nearby ''Getakärr'', a

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

city that was a predecessor of

. Possibly there is a link to the noun ''goat''. In Norwegian, the word ''Geite'', which means "goat", is sometimes used in names of rivers and

skerries A skerry is a small rocky island, usually defined to be too small for habitation. Skerry, skerries, or The Skerries may also refer to: Geography Northern Ireland *Skerries, County Armagh, a List of townlands in County Armagh#S, townland in Coun ...

. The

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

, whose design is taken from a seal from 1536, includes a goat.

Geology

The eastern parts of Getterön is

geologically Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth s ...

the oldest. The bedrock consists of

granulite Granulites are a class of high-grade metamorphic rocks of the granulite facies that have experienced high-temperature and moderate-pressure metamorphism. They are medium to coarse–grained and mainly composed of feldspars sometimes associated ...

. The rock is between 1.6 and 1.7 billion years old. In the western part of Getterön, the bedrock consists of

charnockite Charnockite () is any orthopyroxene-bearing quartz-feldspar rock formed at high temperature and pressure, commonly found in granulite facies’ metamorphic regions, ''sensu stricto'' as an endmember of the charnockite series. Charnockite seri ...

, formed from magma pushed up from the Earth's crust and then solidified. It is around 1.45 billion years old. Mainly, western Getterön consists of two different types of charnockite: Varberg charnockite and Apelviken-Getterön charnockite. At Getterön, the charnockite has slightly larger crystals.Gustafsson 1988, p 7.

Nature reserves

There are two

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

s at Getterön. The older and most famous of them, Getterön Nature Reserve, is one of the finest

bird sanctuaries Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight ...

in Sweden and a Ramsar wetland of international importance. It was founded in 1970. The other nature reserve, Western Getterön Nature Reserve, was founded in 1974.

References

* *

Notes

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Getteron Peninsulas of Sweden Varberg Municipality Landforms of Halland County