50 Fun Facts About Fjords

A fjord is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides created by what?

The ice gouged a deep trough that flooded when it retreated and sea levels rose.

Norway's coastline measures roughly 29,000 km including its fjords. About how long is it without them?

The country has nearly 1,200 fjords, an extreme case of the 'coastline paradox'.

What shape of valley does a glacier carve, which later becomes a fjord?

Rivers cut V-shaped valleys; the ice's abrasion and 'segregation' leaves the broad U with steep walls.

The rocky shoal at the mouth of most fjords, left where the glacier's erosion weakened, is called what?

It can cause violent currents; Norway's Saltstraumen is often called the strongest tidal current in the world.

The Bay of Kotor in Montenegro is often called a fjord but is actually what?

It is the flooded valley of the vanished Bokelj River; rias lack a fjord's glacial sill and overdeepening.

Which 19th-century Norwegian scientist first proposed that fjords were carved by glaciers?

He also argued that much of Northern Europe had once been buried under thick ice, an early version of ice-age theory.

What was discovered on the bottoms of Norwegian fjords in 2000?

The reefs host plankton, anemones, fish and several shark species; the fiords of Fiordland have deep-water corals growing unusually close to the surface.

Which Scots word for a marine inlet shares the same Old Norse root as 'fjord'?

Old Norse fjǫrðr meant a lake-like body of water used for ferrying, and is related to the word for a journey.

The spelling 'fiord' survives mainly in which country's English?

Hence Fiordland, the national park in the South Island's southwest.

Which Irish town's name comes from Old Norse for 'inlet of the mud flats'?

Viking settlers left many such names; Milford Haven likewise derives from Old Norse for 'sandbank fjord'.

Norway's Sognefjord reaches roughly what depth below sea level?

Its threshold at the mouth is only 100 to 200 m deep, which is what makes the deep basin so still.

What nickname does the Sognefjord carry?

At 205 km it is Norway's longest and deepest; the name may come from a word meaning 'to suck', after the tidal surge at its mouth.

Which glacier, continental Europe's largest, sits above the inner end of the Sognefjord?

The mountains around it rise to about 2,000 m; Folgefonna, Norway's third largest, lies beside the Hardangerfjord instead.

The Nærøyfjord and Geirangerfjord were jointly listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in which year?

The listing is called 'West Norwegian Fjords'; the Nærøyfjord narrows to a few hundred metres between walls a kilometre high.

How wide is the Nærøyfjord at its narrowest point?

The 17-km branch of the Sognefjord has occasionally frozen over in cold winters.

The Seven Sisters waterfall on the Geirangerfjord faces which waterfall, said to be wooing it?

The Sisters' tallest strand free-falls 250 m; the Bridal Veil is a third fall further along the fjord.

The Geirangerfjord is under constant threat from which mountain, expected one day to collapse into it?

A collapse would send a tsunami through the fjord, the scenario behind the 2015 Norwegian film The Wave.

The Hardangerfjord region is nicknamed what, for its blossoming orchards?

At about 180 km it is Norway's second-longest fjord and the fifth-longest in the world.

Preikestolen, or Pulpit Rock, rises about 604 m above which fjord?

The 42-km fjord's name means 'light fjord', after its pale granite walls; the path to the rock was rebuilt by Nepalese Sherpas in 2013.

Kjeragbolten, the wedged boulder in Rogaland, hangs over an abyss roughly how deep?

The 5-cubic-metre glacial deposit is a favourite photo spot and a popular BASE-jumping site.

The Trollfjord in northern Norway, a detour on the Hurtigruten route, has an entrance only how wide?

The whole fjord is just 2 km long, cutting into the island of Austvågøya; the film Downsizing was shot there in 2016.

Norway's Hurtigruten coastal service between Bergen and Kirkenes was founded in what year?

Its founder Richard With commanded the first sailing north to Hammerfest, then the fastest route between north and south.

The Flåm Line drops 866 m from Myrdal to the Sognefjord at a maximum gradient of what?

The 20-km branch line opened in 1940 and became one of Norway's most visited tourist attractions.

What historic event took place in the Oslofjord's Drøbak narrows in April 1940?

Colonel Eriksen's aging Oscarsborg fortress fired on the invasion flotilla; Edvard Munch painted the same fjord in The Scream.

Norway's third-longest fjord, at about 130 km, shares its name with which city?

Its main body stays ice-free all year, and the tiny island of Munkholmen sits just off the city's harbour.

Which Nordland fjord is often called the Narvik Fjord in English, after the iron-ore port?

It is 78 km long and 553 m deep; the name is not official in Norway.

Hornindalsvatnet in western Norway, a former fjord cut off from the sea, holds what record?

It was officially measured at 514 m, making it the world's fourteenth deepest lake.

The Norwegian Fjord horse is always what colour?

The breed standard recognises five shades; it is one of the world's oldest breeds and blends draught-horse muscle with a small, agile frame.

The world's longest fjord system, at about 420 km, is Nansen Sound/Greely Fiord/Tanquary Fiord in which country?

Alaska's Chatham Strait/Lynn Canal is second at 403 km, and Scoresby Sund third at 382 km.

The deepest fjord on Earth, Skelton Inlet at 1,933 m, is on which continent?

It lies on the Ross Ice Shelf; Chile's Messier Channel, at 1,358 m, is deeper than any Norwegian fjord.

Scoresby Sund, one of the world's largest fjord systems, is on the coast of which island?

It is named for the English whaler-explorer William Scoresby, who mapped it in 1822; Ittoqqortoormiit is its only permanent settlement.

Which ice stream, the Northern Hemisphere's most productive, feeds the Ilulissat Icefjord?

It moves 20 to 35 m a day and calves about 20 billion tonnes of icebergs a year, some so tall they ground on the fjord floor.

Milford Sound in Fiordland was called the eighth wonder of the world by which writer?

Its Māori name Piopiotahi honours a single extinct thrush-like bird that flew there in mourning after the death of Māui.

Milford Sound's mean annual rainfall of about 6,412 mm makes it what?

Rain can top 250 mm in a day, spawning temporary waterfalls that last a few days after it stops.

The sealer who named Milford Sound around 1812 was honouring a harbour in which country?

John Grono named it after Milford Haven, his birthplace; the fiord's mouth, Dale Point, also takes a Pembrokeshire name.

Which explorer named Doubtful Sound 'Doubtful Harbour' in 1770, unsure he could sail out?

At up to 421 m deep it is the deepest of the South Island's fiords; access today is via the remote Wilmot Pass road.

Fiordland National Park is the largest of how many national parks in its country?

It covers 12,607 square kilometres and shelters the takahē, kākāpō and southern brown kiwi.

Kenai Fjords National Park is centred on which great mass of ice, source of at least 38 glaciers?

Exit Glacier sits at the end of the park's only road; Jimmy Carter first protected the area as a national monument in 1978.

Howe Sound, a network of fjords just northwest of Vancouver, received what designation in 2021?

Its head is at Squamish, 42 km from the Strait of Georgia; the Squamish and Shishalh peoples have travelled it for millennia.

George Vancouver named Puget Sound in 1792 after whom?

Peter Puget was a Huguenot officer; the name originally covered only the waters south of the Tacoma Narrows.

Killary Harbour, often billed as Ireland's only fjord, lies between which two counties?

Connacht's highest mountain, Mweelrea, drops steeply into it; some geologists class it as a shallower 'fjard'.

The Westfjords peninsula of Iceland is joined to the rest of the island by an isthmus only how wide?

It is Iceland's least populous region, with about 7,000 people, and Látrabjarg is the westernmost point and longest bird cliff in the North Atlantic.

Chile's fjords and channels stretch from Cape Horn north to roughly which latitude?

Indigenous Chono and Alacalufe peoples navigated them for centuries before Spanish expeditions arrived.

Which Scottish sea inlet is described as Scotland's longest fjord, at 65 km?

In Scotland fjords are usually called sea lochs or firths; Loch Ness and Loch Lomond are freshwater lakes.

Denmark's Limfjord, once a true fjord, is now technically what?

The sea broke through from the west, so it now separates North Jutland from the rest of the peninsula.

What is the Norwegian term for the protective fringe of skerries and islands along the coast?

Cross fjords parallel the coast behind this island fringe, so boats can travel almost the whole coast in sheltered water.

What is an epishelf lake?

The freshwater floats on denser seawater below, and its surface may freeze into an isolated ecosystem.

The Old Norse word 'angr', another term for an inlet, survives as a suffix in which place names?

Geiranger carries the same ending, which was often transferred to the settlements around the fjord.

Which Tasmanian inlet is popularly called a fjord but is now thought to be a drowned river valley?

Montenegro's Bay of Kotor is another famous 'fjord' that is really a ria.

What is the Māori name of Milford Sound, adopted as part of its official dual name in 1998?

It recalls the extinct piopio, a thrush-like bird said to have flown there in mourning after Māui's death.