Bømlo (or Bømmeløy) is an

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

Vestland Vestland is a Counties of Norway, county in Norway. The county is located in Western Norway, and its administrative centre is Bergen, where the executive and political leadership is based. The County governor (Norway), County Governor is based in ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

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

Bømlo Bømlo () is a list of municipalities of Norway, municipality in the southwestern part of Vestland county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Sunnhordland. The administrative centre of the muni ...

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

Hardangerfjorden The Hardangerfjord () is the fifth longest fjord in the world, and the List of Norwegian fjords, second longest fjord in Norway. It is located in Vestland county in the Hardanger region. The fjord stretches from the Atlantic Ocean into the mou ...

, 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 a ...

, and east of the

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

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

isthmus An isthmus (; : isthmuses or isthmi) 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 count ...

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 municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Sunnhordland. Stord is sometimes called "Norway in miniature" since i ...

lies just to the east and the smaller island of Moster 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 Spissøy Bridge, the Bømla Bridge, and then the

Bømlafjord Tunnel The Bømlafjord Tunnel () 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 long and reaches be ...

. The main settlements on the island include the villages of Svortland, Rubbestadneset, Foldrøyhamn, Langevåg and Melandsvågen. The flat surface that makes up Bømlo is a

strandflat Strandflat () is a landform typical of the Norway, Norwegian coast consisting of a flattish erosion surface on the coast and near-coast seabed. In Norway, strandflats provide room for settlements and agriculture in Norway, agriculture, constitut ...

. 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, sunlight, and biological organisms. It occurs '' in situ'' (on-site, with little or no move ...

210 million years ago during the

Triassic The Triassic ( ; sometimes symbolized 🝈) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.5 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.4 Mya. The Triassic is t ...

period.

References

Islands of Vestland Bømlo {{Vestland-island-stub

See also

References