HOW THEY FORMED

Our planet’s changing climate shaped the land

1 BEFORE ICE AGE

Around 70 million years ago there was very little ice on Earth. The land surrounding today’s fjords was ice-free.

2 ICE AGE

During the Pleistocene epoch, between 2.6 million and 11,700 years ago, the last ice age took place. Large areas of land were covered by glaciers. These form when masses of snow are compacted into giant sheets of ice.

3 10,000 YEARS AGO

As the ice began to melt at the end of the last ice age, the newly exposed land gave ice room to move and spread. When the glaciers moved, the stones they carried with them eroded the bedrock to create valleys.

4 TODAY

Eventually, due to many glaciers melting in a short space of time, sea levels rose. Some of this water flooded the valleys carved by the moving glaciers, producing fjords.