An extraordinary site

The Kvarken Archipelago is extraordinary. About 10 000 years ago a flat archipelago was released under the inland ice, a moraine archipelago that was formed by the melting ice. When the earth crust no longer was pressed down by the inland ice it started to rise. Topelius has tellingly described the influence of the land uplift on the Kvarken archipelago:

The land rises from the sea, the sea turns back, shores are exposed, the slope moves forward. In areas were ships formerly sailed, hardly a boat now could go; where once the fisherman threw his nets, his cows now move grazing on the shore meadow. Reefs and rocks emerge from the sea ... shoals grow to islets, these grow together and join the mainland.

		The Kvarken Archipelago fulfills the geological requirements that are called for by the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO in order to be nominated on the basis of nature values. In 2006 Kvarken was included as a complement to the High Coast World Heritage Site, which was selected in 2000. Photo © Metsähallitus