There are at least 450,000 freshwater
lake
A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...
s in
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
. Most were created by
glacial
A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betw ...
erosion
Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is distin ...
.
Types of lakes
Various
Sami
Acronyms
* SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft
* Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company
* South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise net ...
and
Norwegian language
Norwegian ( no, norsk, links=no ) is a North Germanic language spoken mainly in Norway, where it is an official language. Along with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a dialect continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regio ...
terms distinguish different types of lake, and often feature in
place names
Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...
:
* ''Fjord'': Although normally used to describe a saltwater inlet, in eastern Norway a long, narrow
fresh water
Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does include ...
lake is also called a ''fjord'' (though this differs from the
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
use of the word: see
fjord
In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Ice ...
).
Randsfjorden
Randsfjorden is Norway's fourth-largest lake with an area of . Its volume is estimated at just over , and its greatest depth is . The lake is located at an elevation of above sea level. It is located in Innlandet and Viken counties in the munic ...
, mapped on the left, is the largest example of an inland fjord.
* ''Sjø'': Although normally used to describe a
sea
The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Sea, ...
, ''Sjø'' is also a large fresh-water lake that is not as narrow as a fjord. Examples include
Vansjø
Vansjø is a lake in the municipalities of Moss, Råde, Rygge, Våler in Østfold county, Norway.
Vansjø is part of Moss watershed (''Mossevassdraget'') stretching from Østmarka. Vansjø has four inflow rivers. The lake is fed by the Hobø ...
in
Østfold
Østfold is a traditional region, a former county and a current electoral district in southeastern Norway. It borders Akershus and southwestern Sweden (Västra Götaland County and Värmland), while Buskerud and Vestfold are on the other side o ...
and
Selbusjø
Selbusjø or Selbusjøen is the 17th largest lake in Norway. It is located in Trøndelag county, primarily in the municipality of Selbu, although the western end of it lies in the neighboring municipality of Trondheim. The lake is the largest la ...
in
Sør-Trøndelag
Sør-Trøndelag () was a county comprising the southern portion of the present-day Trøndelag county in Norway. It bordered the old Nord-Trøndelag county as well as the counties of Møre og Romsdal, Oppland, and Hedmark. To the west is the No ...
.
* ''Mjøs'': The form ''mjøs'' is also used for larger lakes.
Mjøsa
Mjøsa is Norway's largest lake, as well as one of the deepest lakes in Norway and in Europe. It is the fourth-deepest lake in Norway. It is located in the southern part of Norway, about north of the city of Oslo. Its main tributary is the rive ...
itself is a large lake between the towns of
Gjøvik
is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Toten. The administrative centre of the municipality is town of Gjøvik. Some of the villages in Gjøvik include Biri, Bybrua, and Hunndalen.
The ...
,
Lillehammer
Lillehammer () is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. Some of the more notable villages in the municip ...
and
Hamar
Hamar is a List of cities in Norway, town in Hamar Municipality in Innlandet Counties of Norway, county, Norway. Hamar is the administrative centre of Hamar Municipality. It is located in the Districts of Norway, traditional region of Hedmarken. ...
. Other examples of the usage include
Vangsmjøse
Vangsmjøse (also spelled as ''Vangsmjøsa'' or ''Vangsmjøsi'') is a lake in Vang Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. The lake has an area of and it has a maximum depth of about deep. A local myth says that if a raw ham is lowered into t ...
in
Vang,
Oppland
Oppland is a former county in Norway which existed from 1781 until its dissolution on 1 January 2020. The old Oppland county bordered the counties of Trøndelag, Møre og Romsdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Akershus, Oslo and Hedmark. The co ...
.
* ''Vatn'': A ''vatn'' (or ''vann'') is a small lake. You can walk around a ''vatn'' in a couple of hours.
Sognsvann
Sognsvann (or ''Sognsvannet'') is a 3.3 km circumference lake just north of Oslo, Norway.
Lying just within the greenbelt around Oslo, the lake is a popular recreational area, used as a camping, picnicking and bathing destination for the re ...
near
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...
is one example of such usage. ''Vatn'' might be used for large lakes further north, such as
Altevatnet
or is Norway’s 11th largest lake. The lake lies in the Bardu Municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The lake is the largest lake in the county. It is approximately long and about wide. The lake is regulated by a dam on the nort ...
in
Troms
Troms (; se, Romsa; fkv, Tromssa; fi, Tromssa) is a former county in northern Norway. On 1 January 2020 it was merged with the neighboring Finnmark county to create the new Troms og Finnmark county. This merger is expected to be reversed by t ...
and
Snåsavatnet
Snåsavatnet (; en, Lake Snåsa) is Norway's sixth-largest lake. The lake is located in the municipalities of Steinkjer and Snåsa in Trøndelag county, Norway. The villages of Følling and Sunnan lie at the southwestern end of the lake and the ...
in
Nord-Trøndelag
Nord-Trøndelag (; "North Trøndelag") was a county constituting the northern part of the present-day Trøndelag county in Norway. The county was established in 1804 when the old Trondhjems amt was divided into two: Nordre Trondhjems amt and S ...
.
* ''Tjern'': (from the
old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...
''tjarn'' and ''tjǫrn'') is a small lake. It is also written ''tjenn'', ''tjørn'' and ''tjønn''. The English cognate is
tarn.
* Combinations:
Østensjøvannet
Østensjøvannet () is a lake located in the Østensjø borough in Oslo, Norway. It is well known for the wide variety of birds and other wildlife that can be found there. It is currently a wildlife preserve, though urban development posed a ser ...
is an interesting variation that concatenates ''sjø'' and ''vann.''
Møsvann in
Vinje
Vinje is a municipality in Telemark in the county of Vestfold og Telemark in Norway. It is part of the traditional regions of Upper Telemark and Vest-Telemark. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Åmot.
General inform ...
,
Telemark
Telemark is a traditional region, a former county, and a current electoral district in southern Norway. In 2020, Telemark merged with the former county of Vestfold to form the county of Vestfold og Telemark. Telemark borders the traditional ...
combines ''mjøsa'' with ''vann''.
* ''Jávrásj'': (
Lule Sami Lule may refer to:
* Lule people, an indigenous people of northern Argentina
* Lule language, a possibly extinct language of Argentina
* Lule Sami language, a language spoken in Sweden and Norway
* Luleå, also known as Lule, a town in Sweden
* Lul ...
, spoken in
Nordland
Nordland (; smj, Nordlánnda, sma, Nordlaante, sme, Nordlánda, en, Northland) is a county in Norway in the Northern Norway region, the least populous of all 11 counties, bordering Troms og Finnmark in the north, Trøndelag in the south, N ...
) or ''Jávrrás'' (
Northern Sami
Northern may refer to the following:
Geography
* North, a point in direction
* Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe
* Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States
* Northern Province, Sri Lanka
* Northern Range, a ra ...
,
[Sami terms for lake taken from the glossary on P.94 of ''Laponia World Heritage Area'', ed. J.L. Battle, printed Ågrens, Örnsköldsvik, 2001, ]
Available online
from the county administration of Norrbotten
Norrbotten (), known in English as North Bothnia, is a Swedish province (''landskap'') in northernmost Sweden. It borders south to Västerbotten, west to Swedish Lapland, and east to Finland.
Administration
The traditional provinces of Swede ...
, accessed 3 April 2006. more widespread): Where the place names of the
Sami people
Acronyms
* SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft
* Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company
* South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise net ...
are used, these are limited to very small lakes, or ponds. None are listed here.
* ''Jávrre'': (Lule Sami) or ''jávri'' (Northern Sami):
These refer to larger lakes. The largest lake in Norway predominantly known by its Sami name is
Siiddašjávri, which lies partly in Nordland but mostly in
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
.
Vuolep Sårjåsjávrre, also straddling the Nordland-Sweden border, is the largest with the Lule Sam ending -''jávrre''.
* ''Luoppal'': (North Sámi) is a narrow lake with one river running into it, one river running out from it. May be difficult to distinguish from a temporary widening of a river.
Largest lakes
Fewer than 400 of Norway's lakes have an area of more than . The total collective area of these lakes is estimated at and the total volume at .
The following list shows the top ten lakes in Norway in terms of surface area.
[Taken from the ]Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate
The Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate ( no, Norges vassdrags- og energidirektorat or NVE) is a Norwegian government agency established in 1921. It is under the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy and regulates the country's water reso ...
(''Norges vassdrags- og energidirektorat'') lake database for Norway.
Deepest lakes
Europe's four deepest lakes are in Norway, namely
Hornindalsvatnet
Hornindalsvatnet is Norway's and Europe's deepest lake, and the world's twelfth deepest lake, officially measured to a depth of . Its surface is above sea level, which means that its bottom is below sea level.
The village of Grodås lies at ...
,
Salvatnet
Salvatnet is a lake in the List of municipalities of Norway, municipalities of Namsos and Nærøysund in Trøndelag counties of Norway, county, Norway. With its deepest depth of , it is Norway's and Europe's Lakes in Norway#Deepest lakes, second- ...
,
Lake Tinn
A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...
and
Mjøsa
Mjøsa is Norway's largest lake, as well as one of the deepest lakes in Norway and in Europe. It is the fourth-deepest lake in Norway. It is located in the southern part of Norway, about north of the city of Oslo. Its main tributary is the rive ...
. The following list ranks the top ten lakes in Norway in terms of depth.
[
* Sources provide both 464 m & 482 m for the greatest depth.
]
See also
*Geography of Norway
Norway is a country located in Northern Europe in the northern and western parts of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The majority of the country borders water, including the Skagerrak inlet to the south, the North Sea to the southwest, the North Atla ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Lakes In Norway
es:Anexo:Lagos de Noruega