From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Storfjorden (Sunnmøre)

Fjord in Sunnmøre, Norway

Field	Value
name	Storfjorden
image	Storfjorden.jpg
alt	Image of the fjord
caption	View of outer section of the fjord, looking west
location	Møre og Romsdal county, Norway
mapframe	yes
mapframe-zoom	8
mapframe-caption	Interactive map of the fjord
basin_countries	Norway
coords
type	Fjord
outflow	Sulafjorden
length	110 km
max-depth	-679 m

| mapframe-zoom = 8 | mapframe-caption = Interactive map of the fjord |max-depth = -679 m

Storfjorden (or Storfjord) is a 110 km long fjord in the Sunnmøre region of Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It stretches from the village of Hareid in the west to the villages of Tafjord and Geiranger in the east. The Storfjorden system branches off into several smaller fjords including the famous Geirangerfjord and Tafjorden. At the village of Stranda, the main fjord branches off into the Sunnylvsfjorden-Geirangerfjorden to the west and the Norddalsfjorden-Tafjorden to the east.

The name literally means the "big" or "great" fjord, indicating that this is a long fjord and it is, in fact, the main fjord in this region. Stretching about 110 km, Storfjord is the 5th longest fjord in Norway. The Storfjord is a dominant topographical feature in the Sunnmøre region as it cuts the region in two parts that are only connected by ferry. The deepest point in the fjord is 679 m near the village of Dyrkorn in Fjord Municipality.

The landscape around Storfjorden is typical for Western Norway. The mouth of the fjord is surrounded by islands with mountains reaching 500 to above sea level. Further to the east there are higher mountains. At the villages of Tafjord and Geiranger, the mountains climb to about 1500 to above sea level. Most of the Storfjorden has characteristically steep or very steep shores, interrupted by several gentle valleys stretching up to 30 km into the hinterland. In this way, the Storfjorden system is, along with the Nordfjorden, Sognefjorden, and Hardangerfjorden fjord-systems, the major samples of the typical west coast fjords highly praised by visitors.

On the steep shores of the fjord, there are several historic mountain farms such as Ytste Skotet in Fjord Municipality and Me-Åkernes, Skageflå, and Knivsflå in Stranda Municipality.

Branches and sections

From the coast to the inland

Mouth (the fjord flows out into two other fjords)
- Sulafjorden
- Vartdalsfjorden
Outer Storfjorden (there are two major branches off the fjord in this area)
- Hjørundfjorden (which branches into the Norangsfjorden and Storfjorden)
- Sykkylvsfjorden
Inner Storfjorden (there are two major branches off the fjord in this area)
- Norddalsfjorden (16 km), which flows into the Tafjorden (8 km)
- Sunnylvsfjorden (26 km), which flows into the Geirangerfjorden (15 km)

Municipalities and villages

This is a list of settlements along the fjord

Sula Municipality
- Leirvågen
Ålesund Municipality
- Vegsundet, Emleim, Valle, Sjøholt
Sykkylven Municipality
- Aure, Ikornnes
Stranda Municipality
- Stranda, Liabygda, Geiranger, Hellesylt
Fjord Municipality
- Stordal, Valldal/Sylte, Eidsdal, Norddal, Tafjord

Transportation

Several car ferries cross the fjord, but there are no bridges or tunnels. The proposed Storfjord Bridge may one day cross the fjord, but it is cost prohibitive at this time. Here is a list of the ferry crossings:

Hareid-Sulesund from Hareidlandet in Hareid Municipality to Sula island in Sula Municipality across the Sulafjorden
Leirvågen-Festøya-Hundeidvik (a 3-point ferry crossing) from Leirvågen on Sula island across the Storfjorden to Festøya in Ørsta Municipality then on to Hundeidvik across the Hjørundfjorden in Sykkylven Municipality
Leknes-Sæbø across the Hjørundfjorden
Ørsneset-Magerholm from Ørsneset in Sykkylven Municipality to Magerholm in Ålesund Municipality, part of Norwegian County Road 60
Stranda-Liabygda from the village of Stranda in the west to Liabygda in the east, Norwegian County Road 650
Eidsdal-Linge across the Norddalsfjorden, part of Norwegian County Road 63
Geiranger-Hellesylt a tourist route along the Geirangerfjord, only operates in the summer

Due to the steep slopes along the shores, road construction is challenging and overland road transport is often limited to valleys. On the northern shore of the Storfjorden, there a continuous network of roads from Tafjord to the island of Sula using the roads 63, 650, E39, 656, 60 and 61. On the southern shore, there are only short sections of roads along the fjord itself.

During summer the Hurtigruten line visits the Storfjorden and Geirangerfjorden regularly.

Landslide and megatsunami

At 10:00 p.m. on 8 January 1731, a landslide with an estimated volume of 6,000,000 m3 fell from a height of 500 m on the slope of the mountain Skafjell into the Storfjorden opposite Stranda. The slide generated a megatsunami 30 m in height that struck Stranda, flooding the area for 100 m inland and destroying the church and all but two boathouses, as well as many boats. Damaging waves struck as far as way as Ørskog Municipality. The waves killed 17 people. It was the first natural disaster in Norway to be reported and documented in historic time.

Gallery

File:Skopphornet.jpg|Mountains at Sykkylven seen from Storfjorden File:Storfjorden-v-Stranda-HH.jpg|Cruise ship on Storfjorden seen from Stranda File:Fähre von Linge nach Eidsdal Norwegen.JPG|Ferry Eidsdal-Linge, inner section File:Sunnylven kyrkje Lindahl.jpg|Sunnylven Church and Hellesylt village, at Sunnylvsfjorden (photo approx 1890) File:Geirangerfjord.JPG|On Geirangerfjord File:207 Geirangerfjord.jpg|Geirangerfjord and Geiranger village

References

"Informasjon om stadnamn". [[Norwegian Mapping Authority.
"Yearbook". [[Statistics Norway]].
"Destination Scorecard: 115 Places Rated". National Geographic Magazine.
Hoel, Christer. "The Skafjell Rock Avalanche in 1731".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

fjords-of-møre-og-romsdal fjord-municipality ørsta-municipality stranda-municipality

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Storfjorden (Sunnmøre) — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report