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 ...

in Molde 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 t ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, 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 ...

. 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 over ...

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 heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...

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 Eikesdalen ...

. 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 an ...

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 century ...

, 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 ...

’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 "

". 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 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 ...

". 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

{{authority control Molde Waterfalls of Møre og Romsdal