Nornan

Giant boulders

At Nornan you see huge boulders. Most likely they were broken off from a mountain nearby and carried away by the inland ice. When the ice melted and the packed ice broke up in Lake Lit-issjön vast quantities of water flowed towards this place. The water carried off all the fine material leaving in its wake only large rocks and boulders.

Ice-free 10,000 years ago

About 20,000 years ago the thick inland ice covered the land that today is Sweden. In due course the ice melted. Geologists are not entirely certain but Ragunda was probably free from ice some 10,000 years ago.
When the inland ice melted the most here in Ragunda, many valleys and lakes were blocked up by ice. One of those lakes was Lit-issjön near Stugun.

*An idea of how an inland ice appears. West-Antarctica inland ice.* Photo: Professor Martin Jakobsson, Stockholm University.

Melting water carried away lighter material

When the ice blocking Lit-issjön melted vast quantities of water flooded the landscape at full force. In the area of Stugun, where the River Indalsälven is narrower, the water was compressed, and as the pressure increased so did the speed of the flow. The water washed away lighter material such as gravel and sand that helped wear down the bedrock. What remained were clean-washed large stones and boulders. At Getgrottan and Döda fallet you can see more giant boulders and at Döviken – Zorbcenter you can see a sandy plateau deposited by the melting water.

*Giant boulders at Nornan.* Photo: Katarina Söderlund.

Ragunda rocks gone adrift

Geologists have found rocks from Ragunda in northern Germany and in the Netherlands. How did they get there, by lorry or boat perhaps? No, they were carried by the inland ice as it moved southwards. When the ice melted the stones and rocks sank to the bottom.