Stangnes

Ancient bedrock with a newly polished surface. The bedrock at Stangnes is among the oldest in Norway.

The last million years of ice ages has grinded down and polished the old bedrock that was created during the Earth's oldest era. This lets us observe the meeting between the Geoparks oldest and youngest geological history here at Stangnes. The skerries here consists of a range of different rock types, that's been formed in a variety of processes. Here, in the Kragerø area, we can find rock that has been sandy beaches and river beds, molten rock from ancient volcanoes, and rock that has solidified far down in the Earth's crust.

During Earth's history, most of our bedrock has been in constant change. The masses that was previously far down in the crust has been metamorphized into new types of rock through pressure, movement and heat. The high pressure and temperature formed cracks and made the masses partially molten. In these cracks, hot water pressed through, again creating new rock types and new molten rock. If you look closely, you can find many traces of the exciting geological history of Stangnes.

The smooth surface, and all the small depressions and crevices you can find here in Stangnes, makes the area a hot hiking destination. Pothole-like structures, curious furrows, and wavy, polished crags hints at huge forces at work. These almost organic shapes that we find in the hard rock is impressive, but how did they come into being?

20.000 years ago, a kilometer thick layer of ice covered the landscape, in what was the last of a series of larger and smaller ice ages. Underneath the glacier, there were large currents of water, bringing substrate such as pebbles, sand, clay and gravel. The enormous weight of the glacier caused the water masses to flow at a high speed and with huge pressure, and together with the substrate it polished the rock beneath. These forces were large enough to carve out the fantastic surface we can admire today.