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Fjord

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A fjord (or fiord) is a narrow inlet of the sea between cliffs or steep slopes, which results from marine inundation of a glaciated valley. Typical characteristics of a fjord include: a narrow inlet, a bottom that is glacially eroded significantly below sea level (allowing deep-draft vessels to navigate easily), steep-sided walls which continue to descend below the sea surface, greater depths in the upper and middle reaches than on the seaward side, and communication with the open sea.

Fjord is an English loanword taken from the Scandinavian term fjord, which derives from the Old Norse fjörðr (pronounced /fjœrðr/, now fjörður in Icelandic (fjørður in Faroese) meaning firth or inlet. The term fjord, although commonly used in Norwegian, Swedish and Danish, is not universally used for naming fjords in other countries. Many fjords are called "canals", "inlets" and "sounds" - for example the Hood Canal, Burrard Inlet and the Puget Sound in the Pacific Northwest.

Contents

[edit] Ancillary features

[edit] Coral reefs

[edit] Skerries

[edit] Locations

[edit] West coast of Europe

[edit] West coast of New Zealand

[edit] West coast of North America

[edit] West coast of South America

[edit] Other glaciated regions

Other regions have fjords, but many of these are less pronounced due to more limited exposure to westerly winds and less pronounced relief. Areas include:

[edit] Extreme fjords

Sognefjorden, Norway

The longest fjords in the world are:

  1. Scoresby Sund in Greenland - 350 km (220 mi)
  2. Sognefjord in Norway - 203 km (126 mi)
  3. Hardangerfjord in Norway - 179 km (111 mi)

Deep fjords include:

  1. Skelton Inlet in Antarctica - 1,933 m (6,342 ft)
  2. Sognefjord in Norway - ~1,308 m (4,291 ft) (the mountains then rise to up to 1,000 m)
  3. Messier Channel in Chile, South America - 1,288 m (4,226 ft)

Even deeper is the Vanderford Valley (2,287 m or 7,503 ft), carved by the Antarctica's Vanderford Glacier. This undersea valley lies offshore, however, and so is not a fjord.

[edit] Scandinavian usage

Use of the word fjord (including the eastern Scandinavian form fjärd) is more general in the Scandinavian languages than in English. In Scandinavia, fjord is used for a narrow inlet of the sea in Norway, Denmark and western Sweden, but this is not its only application. In Norway the usage is closest to the Old Norse, with fjord used for both a firth and for a long, narrow inlet. In eastern Norway the term is also applied to long narrow freshwater lakes and sometimes even to rivers (in local usage, for instance in Flå in Hallingdal, the Hallingdal river is referred to as fjorden). In east Sweden the name fjärd is used in a synonymous manner for bays, bights and narrow inlets on the Swedish Baltic Sea coast, and in most Swedish lakes. This latter term is also used for bodies of water off the coast of Finland where Finland Swedish is spoken. In modern Icelandic fjörður is still used with the broader meaning of firth or inlet. In Finnish language a word vuono is used although there are no fjords in Finland.

[edit] False fjords

The differences in usage between the English and the Scandinavian languages have contributed to confusion in the use of the term fjord. Bodies of water which are clearly fjords in Scandinavian languages are not considered fjords in English; similarly bodies of water which would clearly not be fjords in the Scandinavian sense have been named or suggested to be fjords. Examples of this confused usage follow.

The Gulf of Kotor in Montenegro has been suggested by some to be a fjord, but is in fact a drowned river canyon or ria. Similarly the Lim bay in Istria, Croatia, is sometimes called "Lim fjord" although it is not actually a fjord carved by glacial erosion but instead a ria dug by the river Pazinčica. The Croats call it Limski kanal which does not transliterate accurately to the English equivalent either.

Limfjord in the north of Denmark is a fjord in the Scandinavian sense, but is not a fjord in the English sense. In English it would be called a channel, since it separates the island of Vendsyssel-Thy from the rest of Jutland.

While the long fjord-like bays of the New England coast are sometimes referred to as "fiards", the only glacially-formed fjord-like feature in New England is Somes Sound in Maine.

The fjords in Finnmark (Norway), which are fjords in the Scandinavian sense of the term, are considered by some to be false fjords. Although glacially formed, most Finnmark fjords lack the classic hallmark steep-sided valleys of the more southerly Norwegian fjords since the glacial pack was deep enough to cover even the high grounds when they were formed.

Some Norwegian freshwater lakes which have formed in long glacially carved valleys with terminal moraines blocking the outlet follow the Norwegian naming convention; they are named fjords. Outside of Norway, the three western arms of New Zealand's Lake Te Anau are named fjords as well. Another freshwater "fjord" in a larger lake is Baie Fine, located on the northeastern coast of Georgian Bay of Lake Huron in Ontario. Western Brook Pond, in Newfoundland's Gros Morne National Park, is also often described as a fjord, but is actually a freshwater lake cut off from the sea, so is not a fjord in the English sense of the term.

[edit] Fjords in culture and history

[edit] Fjord horse

There is an ancient breed of horse from the western Norway fjord regions called the fjord horse.

[edit] Fjords in literature and popular culture

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

ca:Fiord cs:Fjord da:Fjord de:Fjord et:Fjord es:Fiordo eo:Fjordo fa:آبدره fr:Fjord ko:피오르 id:Fyord it:Fiordo he:פיורד lb:Fjord lt:Fjordas nl:Fjord ja:フィヨルド no:Fjord nn:Fjord pl:Fiord pt:Fiorde ru:Фьорд sl:Fjord fi:Vuono sv:Fjord zh:峡湾

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