Sautso (), also referred as Alta Canyon, is a

canyon A canyon (; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency t ...

(valley) along the river

Altaelva Altaelva (; ; ) is the third-longest river in Finnmark county, Norway. The river begins in the mountains and lakes in Kautokeino Municipality, near the border with Finnmark county and Finland, just south of Reisa National Park. The long river t ...

Finnmark Finnmark (; ; ; ; ) is a counties of Norway, county in northern Norway. By land, it borders Troms county to the west, Finland's Lapland (Finland), Lapland region to the south, and Russia's Murmansk Oblast to the east, and by water, the Norweg ...

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 valley is located in

Alta Municipality Alta (; ; ; ) is the most populated List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Finnmark Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Alta (town), town of Alta. Some of the main villages in the ...

, just north of the border with

Kautokeino Municipality Kautokeino (; ; ; ) is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Finnmark Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Kautokeino (village), village of Guovdageaidnu/Kautokeino. Other villag ...

. The canyon is about long and about deep, making it the largest canyon of

Northern Europe The northern region of Europe has several definitions. A restrictive definition may describe northern Europe as being roughly north of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, which is about 54th parallel north, 54°N, or may be based on other ge ...

. The canyon begins just downstream (north) from the Alta Power Station. The river flows down from the

Finnmarksvidda Finnmarksvidda (; ) is Norway's largest plateau, with an area greater than . The plateau lies about above sea level. Approximately 36% of Finnmark lies on the Finnmarksvidda. Geography From Alta Municipality in the west to the Varanger Peni ...

plateau (elevation: ) into the canyon (elevation: ), so the walls of the canyon clearly show many sedimentary layers.

References

Canyons and gorges of Norway Alta, Norway Landforms of Finnmark {{Finnmark-geo-stub