ÅlvikÅlvik is a village in the municipality of Kvam in Vestland county, Norway. The village "urban area" consists of the settlements of Ytre Ålvik og Indre Ålvik (outer and inner Ålvik) and Vikadal. The settlements are located on either side of a ridge with Vikadal in between. Indre Ålvik has been heavily industrialised since the early 1900s, when Bjølvefossen A/S was established. The village lies along the Ålvik bay on the northern shore of the Hardangerfjord. Ålvik Church is located in the village.
Orographic liftOrographic lift occurs when an air mass is forced from a low elevation to a higher elevation as it moves over rising terrain. As the air mass gains altitude it quickly cools down adiabatically, which can raise the relative humidity to 100% and create clouds and, under the right conditions, precipitation. Orographic lifting can have a number of effects, including precipitation, rain shadowing, leeward winds, and associated clouds. Precipitation induced by orographic lift occurs in many places throughout the world.
JærenJæren is a traditional district in Rogaland county, Norway. The other districts in Rogaland are Dalane, Ryfylke, and Haugalandet. Jæren is one of the 15 districts that comprise Western Norway. At about , Jæren is the largest flat lowland area in Norway, stretching from the municipality of Randaberg in the north to Hå in the south. It includes the whole Stavanger Peninsula and the mainland area at its base. The coast is flat compared to the rest of the mountainous Norwegian coast, and it has sandy beaches along most of the coastline.
WaterfallA waterfall is any point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several ways, but the most common method of formation is that a river courses over a top layer of resistant bedrock before falling on to softer rock, which erodes faster, leading to an increasingly high fall. Waterfalls have been studied for their impact on species living in and around them.
Abrasion (geology)Abrasion is a process of erosion which occurs when material being transported wears away at a surface over time. It is the process of friction caused by scuffing, scratching, wearing down, marring, and rubbing away of materials. The intensity of abrasion depends on the hardness, concentration, velocity and mass of the moving particles. Abrasion generally occurs in four ways: glaciation slowly grinds rocks picked up by ice against rock surfaces; solid objects transported in river channels make abrasive surface contact with the bed and walls; objects transported in waves breaking on coastlines; and by wind transporting sand or small stones against surface rocks.
IcelandersIcelanders (Íslendingar) are an ethnic group and nation who are native to the island country of Iceland and speak Icelandic. Icelanders established the country of Iceland in mid 930 AD when the Althing (Parliament) met for the first time. Iceland came under the reign of Norwegian, Swedish and Danish kings but regained full sovereignty and independence from the Danish monarchy on 1 December 1918, when the Kingdom of Iceland was established. On 17 June 1944, the monarchy was abolished and the Icelandic republic was founded.
SunnfjordSunnfjord (the southern fjord - in contrast to Nordfjord) is a traditional district in Western Norway located in Vestland county. It includes the municipalities of Askvoll, Fjaler, the southernmost parts of Kinn, Sunnfjord, and the southernmost parts of Bremanger. It covers an area of about and has a population (2016) of 43,324–about 8% of the population of Vestland county. The central geographical characteristic of the Sunnfjord region are the fjords: Dalsfjorden and Førdefjorden.
SandnesSandnes (ˈsɑ̂nːeːs) is a city and municipality in Rogaland, Norway. It lies immediately south of Stavanger, the 4th largest city in Norway, and together the Stavanger/Sandnes area is the third-largest urban area in Norway. The urban city of Sandnes lies in the extreme western part of the vast municipality and it makes up about 5% of the total land area of the municipality. Sandnes is part of the traditional district of Jæren. The western part of the municipality is very urbanized while the eastern part of the municipality is very rural.
BohuslänBohuslän (ˈbûːhʉːsˌlɛːn; Bohuslen; Båhuslen) is a Swedish province in Götaland, on the northernmost part of the country's west coast. It is bordered by Dalsland to the northeast, Västergötland to the southeast, the Skagerrak arm of the North Sea to the west, and the county of Østfold, in Norway, to the north. In English it literally means Bohus County, although it shared counties with the city of Gothenburg prior to the 1998 county merger and thus was not an administrative unit in its own right.
