Fjord diagram

By Atle Nesje, S.

Also spelled fiord , fjords are elongated, deep, narrow steep-sided inlets of the sea that extends far inland and are formed due to the inundation of a glaciated valley. Fjords are set in a U-shaped valley surrounded by steep rock walls on three sides, while the fourth side, which is open to the sea, is referred to as the mouth of the fjord. Fjords receive saline water from the sea or oceans, while the upstream rivers, glacial meltwater, and rainfall drain freshwater into them. Extending thousands of feet below sea level, the depths of these inundated valleys are attributed to their glacial origin. The most distinctive feature of fjords is that it is comparatively much longer than its width.

Fjord diagram

A true fjord is formed when a glacier cuts a U-shaped valley by ice segregation and abrasion of the surrounding bedrock. The work of the glacier then left an overdeepened U-shaped valley that ends abruptly at a valley or trough end. Such valleys are fjords when flooded by the ocean. Thresholds above sea level create freshwater lakes. In some cases, this rebound is faster than sea level rise. Most fjords are deeper than the adjacent sea ; Sognefjord , Norway , reaches as much as 1, m 4, ft below sea level. Fjords generally have a sill or shoal bedrock at their mouth caused by the previous glacier's reduced erosion rate and terminal moraine. Saltstraumen in Norway is often described as the world's strongest tidal current. These characteristics distinguish fjords from rias e. Drammensfjorden is cut almost in two by the Svelvik "ridge", a sandy moraine that was below sea level when it was covered by ice, but after the post-glacial rebound reaches 60 m ft above the fjord. Jens Esmark in the 19th century introduced the theory that fjords are or have been created by glaciers and that large parts of Northern Europe had been covered by thick ice in prehistory. Thresholds are related to sounds and low land where the ice could spread out and therefore have less erosive force. John Walter Gregory argued that fjords are of tectonic origin and that glaciers had a negligible role in their formation.

Supposing that the erosion of the Sognefjord basin started at the beginning of the first significant Quaternary glaciations in Scandinavia 2.

A fjord is a long, deep, narrow body of water that reaches far inland. Fjords are often set in a U-shaped valley with steep walls of rock on either side. Sognefjorden, a fjord in Norway, is more than kilometers nearly miles long. Fjords were created by glaciers. In the Earth's last ice age , glaciers covered just about everything. Glaciers move very slowly over time, and can greatly alter the landscape once they have moved through an area.

A fjord is a long, deep, narrow body of water that reaches far inland. Fjords are often set in a U-shaped valley with steep walls of rock on either side. Sognefjorden, a fjord in Norway, is more than kilometers nearly miles long. Fjords were created by glaciers. In the Earth's last ice age , glaciers covered just about everything. Glaciers move very slowly over time, and can greatly alter the landscape once they have moved through an area. This process is called glaciation. Glaciation carves deep valleys.

Fjord diagram

By Atle Nesje, S. Dahl, V. Valen and J.

Dahee

Bibcode : Sci Y Lolfa. During the ice ages, the ice drained through deep valleys and fjords. Retrieved 30 January As a result, the lack of oxygen throughout the fjord creates massive dead zones. An epishelf lake forms when meltwater is trapped behind a floating ice shelf and the freshwater floats on the denser saltwater below. The fjord bottom then rises to the Solund area, and the sea bottom extends westwards at depths of meters. Saltstraumen in Norway is often described as the world's strongest tidal current. However, the preglacial valley floor is difficult to reconstruct accurately along the present fjord Fig. The present landscape features along the Sognefjord are the result of several erosive processes; glacial abrasion, glacial plucking, subglacial meltwater abrasion, fluvial down-cutting, subaerial denudation and non-glacial downslope movement. Retrieved April 24, The Canadian Encyclopedia.

A fjord is an inlet that is long and narrow in shape, with steep cliffs or other steep rock formations on each side. A fjord is formed by the movement of a glacier that cuts rock formations, forming steep ridges or cliffs on each side of a valley. The valley fills with water from a nearby ocean or sea, leaving steep rock formations above water on either side.

Save And Accept. Shielded from warmer water Thick ice in the narrow passage separating Ellesmere Island from Greenland made it hard to even get to Sherard Osborn Fjord. In the deep fjords, there is still fresh water from the summer with less density than the saltier water along the coast. This was followed by another huge calving two years later. As for the Sognefjord, the result was dramatic. Source s : Conversation Media Group, the. Skip to content. Such valleys are fjords when flooded by the ocean. In extreme cases, there is a continuous freshwater barrier on the surface; therefore, the fjord freezes over. Was it kept in place by a shallow fjord entrance keeping out warmer water? Oslo: Cappelen, Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fjord. Fra fangstmann til viking. As a loanword from Norwegian, [26] it is one of the few words in the English language to start with the sequence fj.