Gea Norvegica Unesco Global Geopark

This was the first Geopark in Scandinavia which was founded in 2008. It covers an enormous area of 3,000 km² in Telemark and Vestfold. Gea Norvegica Geopark is an intermunicipal company which is owned by the municipalities of Bamble, Kragerø, Lardal, Larvik, Nome, Porsgrunn, Siljan, and Skein in addition to the Telemark and Vestfold counties. The Board is the top authority and consists of 12 elected members, one from each municipality and two from each county.

The GeoPark was named after one of the first books describing the geology of the area in 1838. The Latin term Gea Norvegica translates ‘the part of the Earth belonging to Norway’. The rocks here are up to 1.5 Ga old, which is the Precambrian. The youngest geotopes are quite recent, the erosional forms of the last ice age and the general uplift of the area due to the missing weight of the now gone glaciers.

Quite impressive is the Fen volcanic complex (580 Ma) near Ulefoss, which is famous for limestone magma. Limestone is a sedimentary rock which consits of shells and bones of animals or limestone which was deposited chemically from the sea water by evaporation. The geology of volcanism is quite different and generally produces basaltic rocks. But in 1921, the renowned Norwegian geologist Waldemar C. Brøgger published a groundbreaking work. He had discovered volcanic limestones here which formed directly in a magma chamber and had a unique chemical composition. This rock is locally called Søvite, named after the farm Søve which is the type locale.