Bømlo (or Bømmeløy) is an

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

Vestland Vestland is a county in Norway established on 1 January 2020. The county is located in Western Norway and it is centred around the city of Bergen, Norway's second largest city. The administrative centre of the county is the city of Bergen, where t ...

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 ...

. At , it is the largest island in the island municipality of

Bømlo Bømlo is a municipality in the southwestern part of Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sunnhordland. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Svortland. Other villages in Bømlo inclu ...

, lying just off the western coast of Norway. The island sits at the northern entrance to the vast

Hardangerfjorden The Hardangerfjord ( en, Hardanger Fjord) is the fifth longest fjord in the world, and the second longest fjord in Norway. It is located in Vestland county in the Hardanger region. The fjord stretches from the Atlantic Ocean into the mountain ...

, west of the Stokksundet strait, south of the

Selbjørnsfjorden Selbjørnsfjorden is a fjord in Vestland county, Norway. The long fjord flows east-west between the municipalities of Austevoll, Fitjar, and Bømlo. It is a wide fjord that starts at the Slåtterøy Lighthouse at the North Sea in the west and fl ...

, and east of the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

. In the 1800s, the Kulleseid Canal was built across a small

isthmus An isthmus (; ; ) is a narrow piece of land connecting two larger areas across an expanse of water by which they are otherwise separated. A tombolo is an isthmus that consists of a spit or bar, and a strait is the sea counterpart of an isthmu ...

in the central part of the island, giving a shortcut from the eastern side of the island to the western side of the island. The large island of

Stord Stord is a municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Sunnhordland. Stord is sometimes called "Norway in miniature" since it has such a variety of landscapes: coastline, fjords, forests, agricultural l ...

lies just to the east and the smaller island of

Moster Moster is a former municipality in the old Hordaland county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1916 until 1963, when it was merged into the new, larger municipality of Bømlo. The administrative centre of the municipality was the village o ...

lies to the southwest. There are hundreds of other small islands surrounding Bømlo. The island does have a permanent ferry-free road connection to the mainland via the

Triangle Link The Triangle Link ( no, Trekantsambandet) is a fixed link with three branches that connects the islands of Stord and Bømlo to each other and to the mainland at Sveio, Norway. It consists of the underwater Bømlafjord Tunnel from Sveio to the i ...

: the Spissøy Bridge, the

Bømla Bridge The Bømla Bridge ( no, Bømlabrua) is a suspension bridge which crosses Spissøysundet between the islands of Nautøy in Stord Municipality and Spissøy in Bømlo Municipality, Norway. The bridge is long, has a main span of and a clearance ...

, and then the

Bømlafjord Tunnel The Bømlafjord Tunnel ( no, Bømlafjordtunnelen) is a subsea road tunnel under Bømlafjorden which connects the island of Føyno in Stord Municipality to the mainland at Dalshovda in Sveio Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The tunnel is ...

. The main settlements on the island include the villages of Svortland,

Rubbestadneset Rubbestadneset is a village in Bømlo municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The village is located on a peninsula on the eastern side of the island of Bømlo (island), Bømlo, about east of the municipal centre of Svortland. The Stokksundet ...

, Foldrøyhamn,

Langevåg Langevåg or Langevågen is the administrative center of Sula Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The village is situated at the end of the road on the north side of the island of Sula, about northwest of the village of Mauseidv� ...

and Melandsvågen. The flat surface that makes up Bømlo is a

strandflat Strandflat ( no , strandflate) is a landform typical of the Norwegian coast consisting of a flattish erosion surface on the coast and near-coast seabed. In Norway, strandflats provide room for settlements and agriculture, constituting important ...

. This strandflat formed at least partly through

weathering Weathering is the deterioration of rocks, soils and minerals as well as wood and artificial materials through contact with water, atmospheric gases, and biological organisms. Weathering occurs ''in situ'' (on site, with little or no movement), ...

210 million years ago during the

Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest period ...

period.

References

Islands of Vestland Bømlo {{Vestland-island-stub

See also

References