AN ICE EXPLOSION IN NORWAY.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3581, 3 January 1883, Page 4

AN ICE EXPLOSION IN NORWAY.

In a recent number of Nature Mr Bcrgh has elrawn attention to the powerful agency e_erted by ice in (severing rocks, of which

he gives a striking instance occurring on the" Aalcsuld in West Norway, where a low ledge rising out of the fjord is all that remains'of a once extensive fjicld promontory which in the year 1717 was suddenly blown up and precipitated into the water by the force of the ice within the interstices of the stone. The winter had been mild, and during a rapid thaw a considerable stream had swelled up from the covered summit of the fpeld and carried its waters into every crevice of the rock, when a sudden change of wind brought about a sharp frost, which turned the descending waters of the newly-formed stream into ice. arresting their course within tho interstices of the rock. The result was the explosion of the entire mass of the fjield below the outbreak of the stream, and its projection from a height of more than 1500 feet into a neighboring- fjord, winch ingulfed the •whole of the promontory, with its cultivated fields and farmstead. Simultaneously with the disappearance of the land below the surface of the fjord a Ituuv mass of water was propelled against the opposite shore, carrying with it rusty anchors, boat-rafters and'numerous other objects which had longlain at the bottom. The disturbances extended a mile beyond the point at which the land was submerged, and the waters in retreating carried with them a wooden church which had stood fifty feet above the hood, besides sweeping away all the fishing boats for two and a' half miles. Before fir; occurrence, in which a score of persons were killed, the headland had been much resorted to on account of the halibut which abounded in the neighborhood, but since that period the fish have never returned— a circumstance which, according to local popular belief, is due to the covering by_ the infalling rock of certain submarine cavities and springs frequented by the fish.