Jostedalsbreen

Jostedalsbreen or Jostedal Glacier, is the biggest glacier in continental Europe. It is situated in the county Sogn og Fjordane at the west coast of southern Norway. ^[1]

Jostedalsbreen lies in the municipalities of Luster, Balestrand, Jølster and Stryn. The highest peak in the area is Lodalskåpa at 2083 meters.

Jostedalsbreen has a total area of 487 km². ^[1]The highest point is Høgste Breakulen, 1957 m above mean sea level. Branches of the glacier reach down into the valleys, for instance Bøyabreen in Fjærland and Nigardsbreen, both 300 m above sea level. The thickest part of the glacier is 600 meters. Jostedalsbreen has a length of a little more than 60 km ^[1]and covers almost half of the national park, established in 1991 and covering 1,310 km².

The glacier is maintained by the high snowfall rates in the region, not the cold temperatures. This means the glacier has high melting rates in its snouts. The Jostedalsbreen has around 50 glacier arms such as the Nigardsbreen and Tunsbergdalsbreen in Jostedal, the Briksdalsbreen by Olden, the Bøyabreen by Fjærland, the Kjenndalsbreen by Loen and Austerdalsbreen. ^[1]

In 2006 the glacier arm Briksdalsbreen lost 50 metres of ice in a few months. More recent measurements now show that Briksdalsbreen retreated 146 meters in 2006, and could be in danger of breaking away from the upper icefield. Ice climbing has now been terminated because of this event.

See also

• List of glaciers
• List of glaciers in Norway

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jostedalsbreen

• Jostedalsbreen National Park Centre
• Jostedal Glacier National Park
• Directorate for Nature Management - National Parks*(English)
• A view of 6 years Briksdalsbreen

Further reading

• Bjørn Wold, Leif Ryvarden "Jostedalsbreen, Norway's Largest Glacier", ISBN 82-7683-092-7.
• W.C. Slingsby "Norway: the Northern Playground", ISBN 1-904466-07-9.
• A. Dyer et al. "Walks and Scrambles in Norway", ISBN 1-904466-25-7.

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