Gea-Norvegica Geopark

In September 2006 Gea Norvegica Geopark became a member of the European Geoparks Network (EGN). Gea Norvegica Geopark is located in south-eastern part of Norway. The geopark is limited by the administrative areas of the municipalities Bamble, Porsgrunn, Skien, Siljan and Nome in the Telemark county and Larvik and Lardal in the Vestfold county.

The total land area is 3010 square km.

Geology

The geopark is located where the old Scandinavian geology meets the younger geology of the continental Europe.

Highly different geological terranes, both with respect of ages and in modes of origin, occurs within a relatively small area. This area, the Gea Norvegica Geopark, possesses a geological history as long as 1/3 and the age of the earth. The geopark rocks record events and processes that took place during 2 Eons, 5 Eras and 11 Period, and the oldest rocks formed more than 15000 million years ago.

Unique for the Gea Norvegica Geopark is the extreme geodiversity present. During the very long time-span of geological evolution, a great variety of rock types and geological deposits formed through a wealth of processes in widely different geological environments.

The geopark landscapes

The different landscapes within the geopark area results from the great variations in bedrock geology and Late Weichselian and Holocene deposits. On a large scale both the coast is low and the mountains are low. Actually the enveloping surface of the higher hills and mountains, from the sea in the south to the highest parts of the geopark in the north, define a very gentle slope: On average in the western gneiss terrane about 0,65 degrees  and in the eastern syenite pluton about 0,8 degrees . These large-scale surfaces and the different, characteristic local landscape have a long geological history. Some of these histories extend far back into Precambrian.