• Corpus ID: 226225485

Deep weathering, neotectonics and strandflat formation in Nordland, northern Norway

@inproceedings{Olesen2014DeepWN,
  title={Deep weathering, neotectonics and strandflat formation in Nordland, northern Norway},
  author={Odleiv Olesen and Halfdan Pascal Kierulf and Marco Br{\"o}nner and Einar Dalsegg and O. Fredin and Terje Solbakk},
  year={2014}
}

• O. Olesen, H. Kierulf, +3 authors T. Solbakk
• Published 2014
• Environmental Science

The strandflat as a geomorphological element was defined by Reusch (1894). The timing and mechanism of its formation have been discussed at great length over the last century. The strandflat is mainly developed between Stavanger and Magerøya in Finnmark (Holtedahl, 1998) and its width varies from 50–60 km along parts of the Nordland and Møre coasts to more or less zero in the Stad area (Fig. 1). The strandflat is an uneven and partly submerged bedrock platform extending seawards from the coastal mountains. It consists mostly of numerous low islands, skerries and shallow sea areas often limited to 20–40 m depth (Vogt, 1900; Holtedahl, 1998). Its inner boundary is defined by a sharp change of slope (knickpoint), but can locally be more diffuse where the strandflat continues more gradually into the mainland. The strandflat commonly occurs as a rim of low land lying around islands and peninsulas. Opinions with regard to origin and formation vary greatly from mainly preglacial marine abrasion (Reusch, 1894) to subaerial denudation at a base level plain in the peripheral parts of Fennoscandia (Ahlmann, 1919). Asklund (1928) and Büdel (1978) argued that the strandflat represented an etch-plain with inselbergs developed mainly by preCretaceous processes in a tropical climate. Gjessing (1967) suggested that the pre-existence of a mature palaeolandscape (paleic surface) approaching sea level would enhance the effect of different strand-forming mechanisms. Nansen (1922) emphasised, with the basis from his Arctic experience, frost weathering as an important agent. More recent workers have argued that a combination of processes such as frost-shattering, abrasion by ocean waves and sea ice, and glacial erosion are needed to explain the strandflat formation (e.g., Møller & Sollid, 1973; Klemsdal, 1982; Larsen & Holtedahl, 1985; Holtedahl, 1998). There is thus, at the moment, no consensus concerning the mechanism and timing of the strandflat formation. Most researchers, however, seem to favour a Plio–Pleistocene age. NORWEGIAN JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY Deep weathering, neotectonics and strandflat formation in Nordland, northern Norway