Juvvasshøi or Juvvasshøe is a

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

Lom Municipality Lom Municipality () is a frontier Municipalities of Bulgaria, municipality (''obshtina'') in Montana Province, Northwestern Bulgaria, located along the right bank of Danube river in the Danubian Plain (Bulgaria), Danubian Plain. It is named after ...

Innlandet Innlandet is a Counties of Norway, county in Norway. It was created on 1 January 2020 with the merger of the old counties of Oppland and Hedmark (Jevnaker Municipality and Lunner Municipality were transferred to the neighboring county of Viken ( ...

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 ...

. The tall mountain is located in the

Jotunheimen Jotunheimen (; "the home of the Jötunn") is a mountainous area of roughly in southern Norway and is part of the long range known as the Scandinavian Mountains. The 29 highest mountains in Norway are all located in the Jotunheimen mountains, in ...

mountains just outside the border of

Jotunheimen National Park Jotunheimen National Park (, ) is a national park in Norway, recognized as one of the country's premier hiking and fishing regions. The national park covers and is part of the larger area Jotunheimen. More than 250 peaks rise above an elevation ...

. The mountain sits about southwest of the village of

Fossbergom Fossbergom is the administrative centre of Lom Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. The village is located on the south shore of the river Otta, at the north end of the Bøverdal valley. The village has a population (2021) of 830 and a po ...

and about northeast of the village of

Øvre Årdal Øvre Årdal is a village in Årdal Municipality in Vestland county, Norway. It is the larger of the two primary villages in Årdal. The village is situated at the northern end of the long lake Årdalsvatnet, with the village of Årdalstangen at ...

. The mountain is surrounded by several other notable mountains including Store Lauvhøi to the northeast,

Glittertinden Glittertind or Glittertinden is a mountain in Lom Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. The tall mountain is the second highest mountain in Norway. It is located in the Jotunheimen mountains within Jotunheimen National Park. The mountain ...

to the east, Galdhøi and

Galdhøpiggen Galdhøpiggen () is the highest mountain in Norway, Scandinavia, and Northern Europe. The mountain is located in Lom Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is in the Jotunheimen mountains within Jotunheimen National Park. The mountain si ...

to the southwest, and Storhøi to the northwest.

Climate and Permafrost in the Juvvasshøi area

The mean annual air temperature (MAAT) at Juvvasshøi is -4.1 °C. This value is extrapolated from a larger number of official Norwegian weather stations. According to the experience in other alpine and polar regions this MAAT indicates that permafrost must be widespread and probably extends to a depth of several hundred meters. Within the EU-sponsored project PACE (Permafrost and Climate in Europe), a 129 meters deep vertical borehole in bedrock was drilled in August 1999 on Juvvasshøi at an altitude of 1893 meters above sea level. The stable ground temperature at a depth of 100 meters is still -2.6 °C. The measured

geothermal gradient Geothermal gradient is the rate of change in temperature with respect to increasing depth in Earth's interior. As a general rule, the crust temperature rises with depth due to the heat flow from the much hotter mantle; away from tectonic plat ...

in the drillhole of 1.19 °C/100 m allows to calculate a permafrost thickness of 320 meters, a proof that widespread permafrost occurrences must exist in the Jotunheimen area at these altitudes. Juvvasshøi is surrounded by several other notable mountains of Jotunheimen including

to the east, Galdhøi and

to the southwest. They are even several hundred meters higher. The expected MAAT at these highest peaks is in the order of -7 °C, a value characteristic for areas with continuous permafrost and a considerable permafrost thickness. For many Scandinavian scientists, this was surprising and not accepted until the fifth International Conference on Permafrost (ICOP) in 1988 in

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; ), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros, and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2022, it had a population of 212,660. Trondheim is the third most populous municipality in Norway, and is ...

followed by field excursions in Norway and Sweden with international

periglacial Periglaciation (adjective: "periglacial", referring to places at the edges of glacial areas) describes geomorphic processes that result from seasonal thawing and freezing, very often in areas of permafrost. The meltwater may refreeze in ice wedg ...

experts. However, the first permafrost findings date back to the 1970s and early 1980s when thick permafrost occurrences were proved with geophysical soundings.

References

Jotunheimen Lom, Norway Mountains of Innlandet {{Innlandet-mountain-stub

Climate and Permafrost in the Juvvasshøi area

See also

References