Mardalsfossen is a
waterfall
A waterfall is a 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 wa ...
in
Molde Municipality
Molde () is a town and municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Romsdal. It is located on the Romsdal Peninsula, surrounding the Fannefjord and Moldefjord.
The administrative centre of the ...
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 ...
. It is sometimes referred to as one of the tallest waterfalls in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
.
The falls are on the
Mardøla river which flows out of a
hanging valley
A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams ove ...
into the lake
Eikesdalsvatnet
Eikesdalsvatnet is a lake in Molde Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The lake is long and narrow, roughly in length, and it is the largest lake in Møre og Romsdal county. The village of Eikesdalen is located at the southern end o ...
, about northwest of the village of
Eikesdalen
Eikesdalen is a river valley and a small village in Molde Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The river Aura flows through the valley. The village is located at the south end of the lake Eikesdalsvatnet at the mouth of the river Aur ...
.
The waterfall was depicted in the
coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...
of the old
Nesset Municipality
Nesset is a former municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway on the Romsdal Peninsula. The administrative centre was the village of Eidsvåg. Other population centers included Rausand, Boggestranda, Myklebostad, Eresfjord, and Eikesda ...
.
The total fall is according to
SSB, according to World Waterfall Database (WWD).
WWD reports that the SSB typically includes the head measurement for waterfalls that are situated within a hydroelectric system, resulting in a greater height estimate.
Mardalsfossen is a tiered waterfall consisting of two large drops and several smaller ones lower down. It is on average wide, but it can reach up to wide.
The highest vertical drop is one of the tallest in Norway. As with figures for the total height, discrepancies have been reported in the estimated height of each vertical drop. According to the SSB, the upper vertical drop is , while the WWD surveyed it as .
The water, which has been tapped for
hydroelectric
Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...
use, flows over the falls during the summer tourist season of 20 June to 20 August. At other times the water is channeled through the hydroelectric scheme. The highest rate of flow ever recorded in the falls is . Summer flow is currently limited to less than .
In 1970
Arne Næss
Arne Dekke Eide Næss (; 27 January 1912 – 12 January 2009) was a Norwegian philosopher who coined the term " deep ecology", an important intellectual and inspirational figure within the environmental movement of the late twentieth centur ...
, the Norwegian founder of the
Deep Ecology
Deep ecology is an environmental philosophy that promotes the inherent worth of all living beings regardless of their instrumental utility to human needs, and the restructuring of modern human societies in accordance with such ideas.
Deep ecolo ...
movement, tied himself with 300 others in protest against the building of a dam and the subsequent removal of the waterfall.
Between June 2014 and August 2015
Antony Gormley
Sir Antony Mark David Gormley (born 30 August 1950) is a British sculptor. His works include the ''Angel of the North'', a public sculpture in Gateshead in the north of England, commissioned in 1994 and erected in February 1998; ''Another Pla ...
’s ''Another Time'' was on view in the mist from the waterfall and formed the official start of the Mardalsfossen Art Project.
Name
The first element is from the name of the valley ''Mardalen'' and the last element is the finite form of ''foss'' which means "
waterfall
A waterfall is a 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 wa ...
". The name of the valley is a compound of an old river name ''Mara'' (now
Mardøla) and the finite form of ''dal'' which means "dale" or "
valley
A valley is an elongated low area often running between Hill, hills or Mountain, mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers ...
". The old name of the river is probably derived from the verb ''mara'' which means "rub", "grave", "dig" or "die."
Gallery
2012-07 Mardalsfossen.jpg
757. Romsdalen, Mardalsfos fra Eikisdalen - no-nb digifoto 20151109 00145 bldsa AL0757.jpg
Mardalsfossen 01.jpg
Mardalsfossen i Eikesdal.jpg
Mardalsfossen.jpg
References
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Molde
Waterfalls of Møre og Romsdal