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Main mine shaft in Valaheigruva mine.

Varaldsøy- mining

19.06.2018 - 16:13

There is still a lot of ore in the abandoned mines on Varaldsøy Island. If today's prices and availability of ore continue, it is doubtful whether the mines will resume operation. But, the pyrite is there, if the market should return. On Varaldsøy Island one finds at least nine mines and prospect pits, that for the most part date back to the latter part of the 1800s.

At lake Gaupåsvatnet.

Gaupås

19.05.2018 - 19:24

On the trail toward Kyrkjedøri, a half hour walk from Finse station, we find these small ridges

Trail toward Kyrkjedøri

04.12.2018 - 15:04

Roughly 550 million years ago, what is now Finse lay at the bottom of the sea - the remains of mud and clay that were deposited in this sea have ended up on the roofs of Norway. Also the thrust sheet from the continental collision has found its way to Finse, after a several hundred kilometre-long, trek through the mountains, that took several tens of millions of years to complete.

Fantasy drawing of the animal life that reigned when the Bjorøy layer was deposited during the younger part of the Jurassic Period.

Vatlestraumen

12.06.2018 - 20:06

There are coal bits hidden in the sand under Vatlestraumen. These remains from a geological layer from the Jurassic Period were discovered when the undersea Bjorøy Tunnel was built in 1994. Oil- and gas reservoirs in the Troll Field in the sea west of Hordaland are from the same time. It is, nonetheless, quite surprising to find bedrock from dinosaur time inside of the outer islands of western Norway. On the Scandinavian mainland north of Denmark, there are only a very few places where one f inds rock from this time in earth history.

Amateur geologist Torgeir Garmo at work taking out crystals from the rock.

Ågotnes- crystals

12.03.2018 - 13:07

Road cuts and blast areas are a joy to rock collectors, even if the disturbance to nature is ever so disfiguring. These are the best kinds of places to hunt for crystals, which otherwise are removed by weather and wind. In the Ågotnes area there are especially many beautiful crystals to be found.

Holmengrå

Holmengrå

07.12.2018 - 12:45

Holmengrå is the only place in Hordaland where we find traces of the abrasion that is supposed to have transformed Western Norway from a Himalaya-like high mountain landscape during the earth's Paleozoic Era, to a flat lowlands terrain during the Mezosoic Era. Just 400 million years ago, large and small stones plummeted down from the high mountains. Some of these stones became incorporated into the conglomerate bedrock on Holmengrå.

Garnets at Vågenes

Vågenes

18.06.2018 - 20:08

On Vågenes, on one of the prominences out toward Eitrevågen, one finds garnets in anorthosite. The garnets are both older, and not least bigger, than average.

One of the employee's homes.

Lykling- gold

15.12.2018 - 18:23

During the summer of 1979 a rock was found at Lykling in Bømlo that contained 450 grams of gold, and at the end of the 1980s a great many gold samples were laid out for sale. In the old mining area there are still gold miners hunting for the precious metal. But, the big adventure stories are a thing of the past.

Mining pit in the steep slope at Froastad.

Froastad

19.05.2018 - 12:50

Anatase

Matskorhæ

12.03.2018 - 13:26

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