About Fjords
Fjords are more than just a fancy name for bays or inlets, yet it can be tough to determine the difference without delving into a body of waters geologic history. Even place names can be misleading as some fjords are actually referred to as channels or sounds. However, if you have ever dug a hole in the sand at the beach and watched it fill with water as the tide rises then you have inadvertently created a model for how fjords are formed. The main difference being that instead of a giant hand or shovel digging out a hole in the sand, fjords were carved out of bedrock by giant glaciers formed during the last ice age.
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Identification
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Fjord is a Norwegian term for a slot-like glacial valley that is partially submerged by the sea. There are, however, fjords in many other places around the globe besides Norway. Other areas encompassing fjords are British Columbia, Alaska, Chile, Greenland, New Zealand and Antarctica. The common geologic thread here is that these areas all have hard bedrock that is resistant to erosion and were historically home to large glaciers.
Geography
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Found predominantly on western coastlines, fjords are deep valleys mostly carved at the end of the last ice age as glaciers receded from the mountains to the ocean. The reason that most fjords are found on mountainous western coastlines is because moist prevailing western marine winds were lifted upwards over the mountains, which provided abundant snowfall to feed glaciers.
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Misconceptions
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What makes a a fjord a fjord, and not a ria, strait, sound, channel or a bay? Blurred are the lines marking these bodies of water from one another, but there are several trademarks of fjords that make them distinct. One of the strongest characteristics of fjords is that they are deep. Inland bodies of water carved by rivers or retreating seas are usually shallower. Glaciers weighing trillions of tons had the force to gouge out deep valleys far below sea level that were then flooded by sea water as the oceans rose after the last ice age. Also, fjords are usually shallower at the their mouth than these other bodies of water because the glaciers gouging force was diminished as they melted into the ocean.
Features
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While usually associated with tropical areas, some of the world's largest coral reefs were recently discovered growing on the bottom of fjords in Norway. These coral reefs are home to a bevy of marine organisms like plankton and anemones and are believed to be linked to the rich abundance of fish found along the Norwegian coastline. There are also coral reefs in the New Zealand fjords, and an underwater observatory in Milford Sound offers views without getting into the chilly waters.
Significance
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Accessible fjords are popular tourist attractions and Norwegian fjords like Geirangerfjord are especially known as some of the most scenic locations on earth. Some of the longest fjords in the world are Scoresby Sund in Greenland at 217 miles long, Sognefjord in Norway at 126 miles and Limfjorden in Denmark at 112 miles. Some of the deepest fjords are Skelton Inlet in Antarctica at 6,342 feet deep, Sognefjord at 4,291 feet and Messier Channel in Chile at 4,226 feet.
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