Gea Norvegica Unesco Global Geopark, Bamble

About

In the eastern parts of Bamble, the story is quite different. Here you will find nicely layered sedimentary rocks, which mostly consist of limestone, sandstone and slate. These rocks were formed when Norway was a part of a tropical sea, full of life, situated somewhere close to the equator approximately 500 million years ago. 

You cross the boundary between these two different “worlds” as you head into the monumental limestone cliff “Høgenhei”, and in the immediate vicinity to this, you will find one of the geopark’s sites; Rognstranda. Here you can walk on the smooth surface of the old basement rock and at the same time study the limestone cliff on the other side of the bay. If you want to study the limestone in detail, you can do that in Steinvika near Langesund. This geopark site is full of fossils which gives an insight into life in the tropical sea that once flooded the area. 

The origin of the rocks isn’t the only interesting stories to be told when it comes to the geology of Bamble, the area also has a mining history that can be traced back to the 16th century. Here they extracted large amounts of metals and industrial minerals. Examples are quartz, feldspar, apatite, zinc, lead, iron and nickel. The most famous mines are Tråk, Ødegårdens verk and Bamble nickel mines, all within the area of the old basement rocks.