Marine border

After the last Ice Age, the land began to rise as the massive weight of the inland ice sheet melted away. Immediately following the retreat of the ice, sea levels were higher than they are today – in Stryn, about 75 meters above the current level.

As the glaciers melted, rivers carried vast amounts of loose sediments that had been excavated by the ice. When these rivers met the sea, their flow slowed down, depositing sediments in a sorted pattern:

• Coarser materials (gravel and larger rocks) settled closer to the shore.

• Finer materials (sand and silt) drifted further out into deeper waters.

This process created terraces of well-sorted material, which we can still see today. In contrast, moraines – the debris left directly by the glacier – contain unsorted material, where coarse and fine sediments are mixed together.

Sediment Layers in the Sand Pit

In this sand pit, we can observe alternating inclined layers of sand, gravel, and stones. These layers formed as the sediments were deposited on a sloping surface underwater, known as a foreset slope (marebakke in Norwegian).

By looking at the map below, you can see that this terrace sits at 75 meters above sea level. This tells us that the formation of this landscape took place when the sea level was 75 meters higher than it is today.The map shows the marine limit at Holekvia. The sandpit reveals deposits that are more than 10,000 years old, from a time when the sea level was 75 meters higher than today.

This area was once used as a hayfield but is now a grazing pasture for sheep. Holekvia is a terrace formed by sediments carried by the Fosdøla River during the melting of the great inland ice sheet more than 10,000 years ago. At that time, the sea level was 75 meters higher than today, which is why stones, gravel, and sand were deposited right here.

The massive amounts of loose sediments from this period can still be seen in the sand pit just below Holekvia, where the road winds past.