Mannen (lit. "The Man") is a mountain in
Rauma Municipality in
Møre og Romsdal
Møre og Romsdal (; en, Møre and Romsdal) is a county in the northernmost part of Western Norway. It borders the counties of Trøndelag, Innlandet, and Vestland. The county administration is located in the town of Molde, while Ålesund is the ...
county,
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 ...
. The tall mountain is located just west of Horgheim, along the river
Rauma in the
Romsdalen valley. Mannen has a distinctive needle peak. The mountain's shape has been compared to an enormous seated goose that looks out over the Rauma valley, from which it can easily be seen.
Overview
A major landslide of up to of material is said to be impending on the unstable mountainside, so an emergency preparedness service, the
Åknes/Tafjord intermunicipal company (IKS), has closely monitored the area since 2009.
[Skredet kan kome innan få timar](_blank)
("Slide could come within a few hours"), 28 October 2014, Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation
NRK, an abbreviation of the Norwegian ''Norsk Rikskringkasting AS'', generally expressed in English as the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, is the Norwegian government-owned radio and television public broadcasting company, and the largest ...
. Accessed 30 October 2014. Even a smaller slide of about could cross the valley floor, potentially devastating buildings and damaging the
Rauma Line railway and
European route E136
European route E 136 is a European highway located entirely in Møre og Romsdal and Innlandet counties in Norway. The highway begins in the town of Ålesund in Møre og Romsdal county on the west coast of Norway, and it goes east up through ...
.
Such an event could also partially or completely dam up the river Rauma, creating major disruption and a flooding hazard.
During the autumn of 2014, observers became aware of an abnormally large shifting of a portion of the mountain. While it normally shifts by per year, for three weeks that year the movement averaged about per day. As a precaution, on October 22 several houses potentially in the path of a landslide were evacuated and the
Rauma Line stopped its four-times-a-day rail service.
During the night of 28 October 2014, the highest part of the mountain shifted as much as .
The mountain's slippage was three times as much as the previous night's measurement, and it was the largest motion the observers had seen to date. Geologist Lars Harald Blikra told a news conference that the lower part of the mountain has also increased its rate of motion.
During 19 and 20 September 2015, the upper parts of the mountain began to shift quickly again, moving in one day.
In September 2018, of movement was recorded during 24 hours, the highest measured. Various movements from 2014-2018 triggered a "red alert" status, causing the temporary evacuation of nearby residents and railway closures.
On 5 September 2019, a very large landslide took place from Mannen.
Store deler av Veslemannen har rast: – Ser ut som et stort svart hull der oppe
/ref>
In total fell that day, in addition to which has fallen as small rockfalls during the previous years.[Rasfarlege «Mannen»]
/ref> After this landslide, some smaller parts among the debris is still unstable but will not cause a large landslide. It was said that it was the correct action to close the railway and evacuate residents at every one of the 16 red alerts, even if the landslide did not damage any house or the railway.[
]
Name
The name is the definite form of which means 'man' (so means 'the Man'). It is common to compare mountains with persons in Norwegian place names.
See also
* List of mountains of Norway
References
{{authority control
Landslides in Norway
Mountains of Møre og Romsdal
Rauma, Norway
Intermunicipal companies of Norway