Söderåsen is a northwest–southwest elongated

bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid rock that lies under loose material ( regolith) within the crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface material. An exposed portion of bed ...

ridge in

Scania Scania ( ), also known by its native name of Skåne (), is the southernmost of the historical provinces of Sweden, provinces () of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conterminous w ...

in southern

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. On Söderåsen is Scania's highest point at above sea level. It is intersected by several fissure valleys. The ridge extends from Röstånga in the southeast to the Åstorp in northwest. Söderåsen National Park is located east of

Helsingborg Helsingborg (, , ), is a Urban areas in Sweden, city and the seat of Helsingborg Municipality, Scania County, Scania (Skåne), Sweden. It is the second-largest city in Scania (after Malmö) and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, ninth ...

in Scania.

Geography

In Swedish the word ''ås'' commonly refer to

esker An esker, eskar, eschar, or os, sometimes called an ''asar'', ''osar'', or ''serpent kame'', is a long, winding ridge of stratified sand and gravel, examples of which occur in glaciated and formerly glaciated regions of Europe and North Amer ...

s, a glacial landform, but in the case of Söderåsen it corresponds to a

tectonic Tectonics ( via Latin ) are the processes that result in the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its evolution through time. The field of ''planetary tectonics'' extends the concept to other planets and moons. These processes ...

landform called horst in the Sorgenfrei-Tornquist Zone. The last glacial

ice sheet In glaciology, an ice sheet, also known as a continental glacier, is a mass of glacier, glacial ice that covers surrounding terrain and is greater than . The only current ice sheets are the Antarctic ice sheet and the Greenland ice sheet. Ice s ...

, the Weichsel ice, left the area of Söderåsen 14,000 to 13,500 years BP. Following this there was a period up to 12,700 years BP of cold non-glacial conditions with

permafrost Permafrost () is soil or underwater sediment which continuously remains below for two years or more; the oldest permafrost has been continuously frozen for around 700,000 years. Whilst the shallowest permafrost has a vertical extent of below ...

and strong winds.

Kopparhatten

On Söderåsen is the viewpoint Kopparhatten at a height of . It is the highest point in Söderåsens national park. This part of the hill has a particularly dramatic landscape, with up to deep ravines. Various nivation hollows exists in the vicinity of Kopparhatten.

Streams

The Kvärkabäcken and Skäralid streams that traverses Söderåsen are believed to be antecedent rivers that existed prior to the present-day relief. These rivers may date to

Neogene The Neogene ( ,) is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period million years ago. It is the second period of th ...

times when the South Småland peneplain formed. The streams were then likely modified by

meltwater Meltwater (or melt water) is water released by the melting of snow or ice, including glaciers, glacial ice, tabular icebergs and ice shelf, ice shelves over oceans. Meltwater is often found during early spring (season), spring when snow packs a ...

during the

deglaciation Deglaciation is the transition from full glacial conditions during ice ages, to warm interglacials, characterized by global warming and sea level rise due to change in continental ice volume. Thus, it refers to the retreat of a glacier, an ice shee ...

Oden Lake

Oden Lake () is a lake in Scania, in Sweden and belongs to Söderåsens National park. The lake is circular in shape, with a diameter of and it is deep. Oden Lake likely formed from a glacier niche, and the name Oden Lake may have been due to the circular shape as compared to the Norse god

Odin Odin (; from ) is a widely revered god in Norse mythology and Germanic paganism. Most surviving information on Odin comes from Norse mythology, but he figures prominently in the recorded history of Northern Europe. This includes the Roman Em ...

's one eye. Earlier views have suggested the lake may be a volcanic explosion crater, a nivation hollow or formed by fluvial erosion or as

plunge pool A plunge pool (or plunge basin or waterfall lake) is a deep depression in a stream bed at the base of a waterfall or Shut-in (river), shut-in. It is created by the erosion, erosional forces of cascading water on the rocks at the formation's bas ...

of glacial meltwater. These various theories that had accumulated up to the 1980s were proposed by

Alfred Gabriel Nathorst Alfred Gabriel Nathorst (7 November 1850 – 20 January 1921) was a Swedish Arctic explorer, geologist, and palaeobotanist. He travelled to Spitzbergen, Svalbard and Greenland where he took an interest in the Arctic floras from the Paleozoic ...

, Lennart von Post, Mats Åkesson and

Anders Rapp Anders Rapp (1927–1998) was a Swedish geomorphologist and geographer who pioneered quantitative geomorphological approach on Peristalsis, mass movements and erosion. He was the first to make a comprehensive study on avalanche boulder tongues. ...

among others.

Flora, fauna, and funga

The landscape offers views of leafy

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and botany, the term deciduous () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed Leaf, leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

forests and powerful

scree Scree is a collection of broken rock fragments at the base of a cliff or other steep rocky mass that has accumulated through periodic rockfall. Landforms associated with these materials are often called talus deposits. The term ''scree'' is ap ...

s with high rocks, flowing watercourses and wide vistas. The forest, is made up of different types of wood as for example

beech Beech (genus ''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to subtropical (accessory forest element) and temperate (as dominant element of Mesophyte, mesophytic forests) Eurasia and North America. There are 14 accepted ...

oak An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

and ash. The ground of the forest is covered with a notable amount of plant species. The area is rich with

mushroom A mushroom or toadstool is the fleshy, spore-bearing Sporocarp (fungi), fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or another food source. ''Toadstool'' generally refers to a poisonous mushroom. The standard for the n ...

s, insects, water creatures, mosses, birds and bats. Because of the rugged landscape, many characteristics of primeval forest have been preserved, such as an abundance of dead trees. This makes the insect life rich, with many rare

beetle Beetles are insects that form the Taxonomic rank, order Coleoptera (), in the superorder Holometabola. Their front pair of wings are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects. The Coleoptera, with about 40 ...

s. The flora is also extremely rich, with species such as hollowwort, enchanter's nightshade and tall meadow-rue.

Söderåsen National Park

The Söderåsen National Park () is a designated area of about . It was established in 2001 in the municipalities of Klippan and

Svalöv Svalöv () is a locality and the seat of Svalöv Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 3,633 inhabitants in 2010. It is around north of Malmö Malmö is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, third-largest city in Sweden, after ...

and ranges from the Skäralid ravine in the north to the Nackarpsdalen in the south. It was already a protected area, and when it became a national park, the protection of the land increased. Some of the noted features in the national park are the Oden Lake in Nackarpsdalen and the viewpoints Kopparhatten, Hjortsprånget and Lierna along the Skäralidsdalen.

References

External links

Sweden's National Parks: Söderåsen National Park
from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency {{DEFAULTSORT:Soderasen National parks of Sweden Geography of Skåne County Protected areas established in 2001 2001 establishments in Sweden Tourist attractions in Skåne County Klippan Municipality Svalöv Municipality