Nigardsbreen

Nigardbreen denotes a Jostedal from the top in the vicinity of Gaupne ( Luster ) down -reaching glacier tongue of Jostedalsbreen. The name Nigardsbreen goes back to the settlement Nigard. This was at a rapid glacier advance in 1743 destroyed ( three kilometers in about 50 years ).

Nearby is the Museum Breheimsenteret in which the formation of glaciers, as well as the flora and fauna of the area is described lies. In the valley of the glacier, the lake is Nigardsbrevatnet, on which one can take a small boat to the glacier.

The glacier in Norway is not seen as relics of the Ice Age. During a post-glacial warm period the whole area had become ice-free, so that formed during the Ice Age glaciers had melted. In Subatlantic (about 500 BC), there was a worsening of the climate. This was characterized by a decrease of the snow line. Therefore, the present-day glacier come from this period. The largest expansion of the gains or losses arising glacier was around 1750. Nigardsbreen reached its greatest extent The 1748 date was a retreat of the glacier at about five kilometers. Today, the glacier tongue measures a length of about nine kilometers. The total area is 48 km ². In the 1930s, formed by the retreat of a 1.5 km from Ice Lake. He is dammed by the moraine. Since 1908, the behavior of the Nigardsbreen is observed. Since the 1980s, however, a decrease in the withdrawal rate was observed in a few years showed the Nigardsbreen even a foray behavior. Since 2000, this foray movements were particularly clear, however, is since 2004 a withdrawal tendency.