Jostedal Glacier or is the largest
glacier
A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...
in continental
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
. It is in
Vestland
Vestland is a Counties of Norway, county in Norway. The county is located in Western Norway, and its administrative centre is Bergen, where the executive and political leadership is based. The County governor (Norway), County Governor is based in ...
county in
Western Norway
Western Norway (; ) is the Regions of Norway, region along the Atlantic coast of southern Norway. It consists of the Counties of Norway, counties Rogaland, Vestland, and Møre og Romsdal. The region has no official or political-administrative fu ...
.
Jostedalsbreen lies in the municipalities of
Luster,
Sogndal,
Sunnfjord, and
Stryn. The highest peak in the area is
Lodalskåpa at a height of .
History
In 1906, work was being done on
footpath
A footpath (also pedestrian way, walking trail, nature trail) is a type of thoroughfare that is intended for use only by pedestrians and not other forms of traffic such as Motor vehicle, motorized vehicles, bicycles and horseback, horses. They ...
s that could accommodate tourists.
The glacial water is also used in distilling
Vikingfjord
Geography
The Jostedal Glacier has a total area of . The highest point is
Høgste Breakulen at above
mean sea level
A mean is a quantity representing the "center" of a collection of numbers and is intermediate to the extreme values of the set of numbers. There are several kinds of means (or "measures of central tendency") in mathematics, especially in statist ...
. Branches of the glacier reach down into the valleys, for instance
Bøyabreen in
Fjærland and
Nigardsbreen, both at above sea level. The thickest part of the glacier is . Jostedalsbreen has a length of a little more than and it is a part of the
Jostedalsbreen National Park, which was established in 1991. The glacier covers over half of the national park.
The glacier is maintained by the high snowfall rates in the region, not the cold temperatures. This means the glacier has high melting rates in its
snouts. The Jostedalsbreen has around 50 glacier arms such as the
Nigardsbreen and
Tunsbergdalsbreen in
Jostedal, the
Briksdalsbreen near
Olden, the
Bøyabreen by
Fjærland, the
Kjenndalsbreen,
Tindefjellbreen near
Loen, and
Austerdalsbreen.
In 2012, the glacier arm
Briksdalsbreen lost of ice in a few months. More recent measurements now show that Briksdalsbreen retreated in 2006, and could be in danger of breaking away from the upper icefield. Ice climbing has now been terminated because of this event.
See also
*
List of glaciers
*
List of glaciers in Norway
*
Vikingfjord
References
Further reading
*
*
*
External links
Mapat
SNL.noJostedalsbreen National Park CentreJostedal Glacier National ParkDirectorate for Nature Management - National Parks
Glaciers of Vestland
Sogndal
Sunnfjord
Luster, Norway
Stryn
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