Förden and East Jutland Fjorde

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Mariager Fjord
Mariager Fjord
Fjorde of East Jutland and Förden of Schlewig-Holstein
Fjorde of East Jutland and Förden of Schlewig-Holstein

On the eastern coast of the "Cimbrian Peninsula" consisting of Danish Jutland and German Schleswig-Holstein there is a special type of narrow bays, called Förde (plural: Förden) in Germany and fjord (plural fjorde) in Denmark. These bays are of glacial origin, but the mechanics were very different from that of Norwegian fjords.

The words förde and fjord are of the same origin as the English word firth.

[edit] Geology

When present Baltic Sea was covered by a huge shield of ice, at the edge of it the ice moved upon a land without mountains as tongues of glaciers. These carved out canals. Later on the ice retreated and gave place at first to a large lake, then to the Baltic Sea. The water level rose and the canals were filled by water. The material carved out formed moraine hills near the sides and ends of the canals.

The fjärdar at the coasts of Sweden and Finland have a similar origin.

Some of these förden and fjorde are believed not to have been carved out by the ice but to have been washed out by flows of water below the ice (tunnel valleys).

[edit] List

Denmark:

  • Langerak, length 32 km, eastern part of Limfjord, really a strait with eastern entrance from Kattegat and western communication to the other parts of Limfjord, which are rather lagoons
  • Randers Fjord, length 30 km , entrance from the north, branching in the south, with eastern branch
    • Grund Fjord, less obstructed by sand than the main fjord
  • Norsminde Fjord, hardly 3 km long, changed to be a lake by silting
  • Horsens Fjord, length 16 km lang; the entrance between the islands of Alrø and Hjarnø is called Alrø Sund.
  • Vejle Fjord, length 12 km
  • Rands Fjord, length only 3 km, up to 19th century it was a real bay; then a dam was built to separate it from the sea. Now the former fjord is used as a reserve of fresh water
  • Haderslev Fjord, length 15 km, the most narrow fjord
  • Åbenrå Fjord, length 10 km, width 3 - 4 km
  • Alsfjord, length 12 km, prologued to 20 km Augustenborg Fjord; in addition to the main entrance from the north it there is a narrow second entrance, called Als Sund; the blind end is Augustenborg Fjord


Border:

  • Flensburger Förde (German), in Danish called Flensborg Fjord. It is the lagest of these bays (length 40 or 50 km), and reaching most far west
The inner part of Flensburger Förde has been used as a harbour since middle ages.
The inner part of Flensburger Förde has been used as a harbour since middle ages.

Germany:

  • Schlei, length 40 - 42 km, most narrow German Förde
  • Eckernförde Bay, in German Eckernförder Bucht, in Danish Egernførde Fjord. The component -förde of the name of the city has not the meaning of this type of bay, but the meaning of ford
  • Kieler Förde; geologicaly a part of the large Kieler Bucht belongs to Kieler Förde
  • The lake Hemmelsdorfer See is a former förde
  • Former Traveförde is now partly filled up by sand. The residual part is called Pötenitzer Wiek and communicates to the sea only by the estuary of Trave river.

[edit] Literature

  • Kurt-Dietmar Schmidtke: Die Entstehung Schleswig-Holsteins, Neumünster (Germany), 3rd edition 1995, ISBN 3-529-05316-3
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