Kvarken Islands and High coast

The Unesco Scientific, Educational and Cultural Organization has recognized the Kvarken Islands and High Seas (Hoga Kusten) of Finland and Sweden as World Natural Heritage in 2000.

Kvarken is also written in Quarken in Swedish and Merenkurkku in Finnish as a fjord in the Great Bay area Bothnia. Kvarken separates the Gulf of Bothnia and the Sea of ​​Bothnia.

The entire Kvarken fjord area covers about 194,400 ha of which 85% is sea. The rest consists of 5,600 small islands. So far 2,500 small islands out of 5,600 islands have been inhabited, but the number of people living on the islands is not much.

The distance from the mainland of Sweden to inter-Finnish land is about 80 km, while the distance between the islands of Finland and Sweden is only 25 km. Kvarken fjord has a low average depth of only about 25 meters. Land in this area has improved year by year. According to geologists, this area has an unusually high percentage of land like the high coast . Each year the land here is about 1cm tall and creates about 1km2 of new land. Geologists have figured out that, at this rate of growth, within 2,500 years, the region will become a lake.

The map shows the maritime distance of the two countries Finland and Sweden are very short

Historically, the Kvarken area held a rather important position in the past. Most correspondence has been transferred to this area when the sea freezes. Therefore, this bay becomes an ideal transgressive route and less time compared to having to transfer mail by land. This mailing route is used extensively during the Swedish period of Finnish rule.

In the island group in the middle of Kvarken there is a 36-meter lighthouse , built in 1885. The lighthouse designed by architect Henry LePaute. Architect Henry LePaute worked in the office of the talented architect Gustave Eiffel. This lighthouse is thus built based on the structure of the construction of the Eiffel Tower . Just like most other towers and lighthouses in Finland, this lighthouse now operates fully automatically. Kvarken fjord is recognized by Unesco as a World Natural Heritage along with Sweden's High Coast in 2006.

High Coast was recognized six years earlier, in 2000. Cao Beach is a coastal area in northern Sweden on Bothnia Bay in the town of Krafors, Harnosand, Ornskoldsvik. This beach is famous as a model area for " static " research. Here, the land rises because of the weight of the glaciers melting in the soil. This phenomenon was studied and recognized for the first time in the high seaside area. Since the end of the ice age, the land here has risen about 800 meters. It is easy to understand why this land is considered an unusual area with high cliff formation. Through research and research, scientists also said that people have lived in this area for more than 7,000 years ago.

Up to now, Cao's coastline has been particularly attractive to scientists and scientists to study. In the record of recognition of this heritage, Unesco remarked: This High Coast creates great opportunities for understanding the important processes that have created glaciers and populated lands above the Left surface. Land.

The Kvarken Islands and the High Seas are recognized by the criteria (viii): The Kvarken Islands and the High Seas are home to special geological values. First, both regions have a high rate of static enhancement in the world, meaning that the land continues to increase in height after the withdrawal of land ice sheets. This process of lifting the soil was recorded in the last 10,500 years. The soil lift takes place along with major changes in water sources. This phenomenon is the basis for studies of the reaction process of the earth's crust with the melting of the continental ice sheet.

Secondly, the Kvarken Islands and the High Coast with 5,600 small islands contain sedimentary components of the ice sheet from the ice age. This sediment makes soil here more diverse and special.