50 free Fjords trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This fjords trivia quiz covers the glacier-carved sea inlets that give Norway, New Zealand, Greenland, Chile, Alaska and Canada their most dramatic coastlines. The easier questions handle the basics: what a fjord actually is, which country has nearly 1,200 of them, the 'King of the Fjords', the cliff called Pulpit Rock and the New Zealand fiord Rudyard Kipling called the eighth wonder of the world. The harder end is for geography obsessives: the sill at a fjord's mouth and why it starves deep water of oxygen, the Antarctic inlet nearly two kilometres deep, the 420-kilometre fjord system in Canada's Arctic, the coral reefs found on Norwegian fjord floors in 2000, the Old Norse root shared with the Scots word firth, why the Bay of Kotor and the Oslofjord are not technically fjords at all, the glacier at Ilulissat that calves 20 billion tonnes of ice a year, and the German cruiser sunk in a fjord narrows in 1940. There are also questions on the Fjord horse, the Flåm railway, Hurtigruten and the waterfalls of Geiranger. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries for the fjords, regions and features involved before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, our Norway, glaciers, New Zealand and national parks quizzes are natural next stops.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01A fjord is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides created by what?
A former glacier
The ice gouged a deep trough that flooded when it retreated and sea levels rose.
Q 02Norway's coastline measures roughly 29,000 km including its fjords. About how long is it without them?
2,500 km
The country has nearly 1,200 fjords, an extreme case of the 'coastline paradox'.
Q 03What shape of valley does a glacier carve, which later becomes a fjord?
U-shaped
Rivers cut V-shaped valleys; the ice's abrasion and 'segregation' leaves the broad U with steep walls.
Q 04The rocky shoal at the mouth of most fjords, left where the glacier's erosion weakened, is called what?
A sill or threshold
It can cause violent currents; Norway's Saltstraumen is often called the strongest tidal current in the world.
Q 05The Bay of Kotor in Montenegro is often called a fjord but is actually what?
A ria, a drowned river valley
It is the flooded valley of the vanished Bokelj River; rias lack a fjord's glacial sill and overdeepening.
Q 06Which 19th-century Norwegian scientist first proposed that fjords were carved by glaciers?
Jens Esmark
He also argued that much of Northern Europe had once been buried under thick ice, an early version of ice-age theory.
Q 07What was discovered on the bottoms of Norwegian fjords in 2000?
Coral reefs
The reefs host plankton, anemones, fish and several shark species; the fiords of Fiordland have deep-water corals growing unusually close to the surface.
Q 08Which Scots word for a marine inlet shares the same Old Norse root as 'fjord'?
Firth
Old Norse fjǫrðr meant a lake-like body of water used for ferrying, and is related to the word for a journey.
Q 09The spelling 'fiord' survives mainly in which country's English?
New Zealand
Hence Fiordland, the national park in the South Island's southwest.
Q 10Which Irish town's name comes from Old Norse for 'inlet of the mud flats'?
Wexford
Viking settlers left many such names; Milford Haven likewise derives from Old Norse for 'sandbank fjord'.
Q 11Norway's Sognefjord reaches roughly what depth below sea level?
About 1,300 m
Its threshold at the mouth is only 100 to 200 m deep, which is what makes the deep basin so still.
Q 12What nickname does the Sognefjord carry?
King of the Fjords
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.
Q 13Which glacier, continental Europe's largest, sits above the inner end of the Sognefjord?
Jostedalsbreen
The mountains around it rise to about 2,000 m; Folgefonna, Norway's third largest, lies beside the Hardangerfjord instead.
Q 21The Trollfjord in northern Norway, a detour on the Hurtigruten route, has an entrance only how wide?
About 100 m
The whole fjord is just 2 km long, cutting into the island of Austvågøya; the film Downsizing was shot there in 2016.
Q 22Norway's Hurtigruten coastal service between Bergen and Kirkenes was founded in what year?
1893
Its founder Richard With commanded the first sailing north to Hammerfest, then the fastest route between north and south.
Q 23The Flåm Line drops 866 m from Myrdal to the Sognefjord at a maximum gradient of what?
5.5 percent
The 20-km branch line opened in 1940 and became one of Norway's most visited tourist attractions.
Q 14The Nærøyfjord and Geirangerfjord were jointly listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in which year?
2005
The listing is called 'West Norwegian Fjords'; the Nærøyfjord narrows to a few hundred metres between walls a kilometre high.
Q 15How wide is the Nærøyfjord at its narrowest point?
About 250 m
The 17-km branch of the Sognefjord has occasionally frozen over in cold winters.
Q 16The Seven Sisters waterfall on the Geirangerfjord faces which waterfall, said to be wooing it?
The Suitor
The Sisters' tallest strand free-falls 250 m; the Bridal Veil is a third fall further along the fjord.
Q 17The Geirangerfjord is under constant threat from which mountain, expected one day to collapse into it?
Åkerneset
A collapse would send a tsunami through the fjord, the scenario behind the 2015 Norwegian film The Wave.
Q 18The Hardangerfjord region is nicknamed what, for its blossoming orchards?
The fruit orchard of Norway
At about 180 km it is Norway's second-longest fjord and the fifth-longest in the world.
Q 19Preikestolen, or Pulpit Rock, rises about 604 m above which fjord?
Lysefjord
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.
Q 20Kjeragbolten, the wedged boulder in Rogaland, hangs over an abyss roughly how deep?
About 1,000 m
The 5-cubic-metre glacial deposit is a favourite photo spot and a popular BASE-jumping site.
Q 24What historic event took place in the Oslofjord's Drøbak narrows in April 1940?
The sinking of the German cruiser Blücher
Colonel Eriksen's aging Oscarsborg fortress fired on the invasion flotilla; Edvard Munch painted the same fjord in The Scream.
Q 25Norway's third-longest fjord, at about 130 km, shares its name with which city?
Trondheim
Its main body stays ice-free all year, and the tiny island of Munkholmen sits just off the city's harbour.
Q 26Which Nordland fjord is often called the Narvik Fjord in English, after the iron-ore port?
Ofotfjord
It is 78 km long and 553 m deep; the name is not official in Norway.
Q 27Hornindalsvatnet in western Norway, a former fjord cut off from the sea, holds what record?
Europe's deepest lake
It was officially measured at 514 m, making it the world's fourteenth deepest lake.
Q 28The Norwegian Fjord horse is always what colour?
Dun
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.
Q 29The world's longest fjord system, at about 420 km, is Nansen Sound/Greely Fiord/Tanquary Fiord in which country?
Canada
Alaska's Chatham Strait/Lynn Canal is second at 403 km, and Scoresby Sund third at 382 km.
Q 30The deepest fjord on Earth, Skelton Inlet at 1,933 m, is on which continent?
Antarctica
It lies on the Ross Ice Shelf; Chile's Messier Channel, at 1,358 m, is deeper than any Norwegian fjord.