Skjelbreidterrassen (Svein Nord)

Skjelbreid terrace

Skjelbreid

On the east side of Lake Skjelbreidvatnet, clearly visible along the road from Eikelandsosen, we notice a farm on a terrace above a grassy hill. The hill has the form of a broad shield; Skjelbreid (" Broad Shield") is the name of the farm.

At the end of the last Ice Age, some hundreds of years after the glacier had deposited the end moraine and clay at Vinnes, the glacier in Eikelands Fjord broke up. The glacier collapsed in the area between Lake Skjelbreidvatnet and Lake Vengsvatnet. The glacial outwash rivers carried sand and gravel that got deposited in the fjord. The sea then was 78 metres higher than today. The edge of the glacier lay at rest so long that the deposits built up a delta. The gravel pit north of the terrace has alternating diagonal layers of sand and gravel that were deposited on the delta slope. This is because of the alternating water transport in the glacial outwash river that carried these deposits along.

After the glacial river had deposited the delta, the glacier expanded a bit, and the front advanced. We see this because the remains of the moraine ridge lie up on the terrace. Some of the ridge got flattened out since, but it is still visible near the Sørelva River

Places in muncipality