Sørøya: Hike to Nordsandfjorden Nature Reserve

Introduction

The 29th of May was Kristi himmelfartsdag (Ascension Day), which is a national holiday in Norway, so we had the day off work. I decided to take the opportunity to explore the Island a bit. Sørøya is Norway’s 4th largest island. It is a beautiful and remote place.

The Route

A 3.5km hike shown by the blue line

Geology

Disclaimer: I am not a geologist. If you are a geologist, I would deeply appreciate an email if you are knowledgeable about these sorts of formations.

The Beach & Sandy Plain

First view of the beach. Look closely and you can see some reindeer

From what I understand from my research, the area is a raised beach or “marine terrace”. The sandy plain was deposited when sea levels were 50-60m above where they are today (which would be up by the lake if you look at the map). What is mind boggling to me, is all of this would have been deposited between when the glaciers receded, and when isostatic uplift raised the land above sealevel (approx 1cm per year). The outer coast of Finnmark became ice-free around 14,600 years ago. That is just a few thousand years where deposition could have taken place. ¹

When I first saw the beach, I was struck with an optical illusion. It appeared to be very large, but there happened to be a herd of reindeer grazing on the field. The reindeer were my only real sense of scale, so at first they appeared large compared to what I was expecting.

Cool patterns from erosion, presumably from reindeer traversing the hill

The river dips in between some rocks and goes down some falls.

Sand Layers

Layers in the sand

The river cuts through the beach, leaving walls of layered sand on each side. The layers are likely made by seasonal changes. When the beach is in a high energy state, only larger grains are deposited. It seemed like larger grains were mostly shell material, and then lower energy states where there were fine grains and much more dark material in the layer.

Close-up of the grains of sand

The sand is primarily composed of a mix of sharp clear and white grains, flat rounded opaque grains ranging from white to orange, flat rounded black grains, and some sharper green/orange grains. A mix of shells and minerals.

Coarse shells near the layered sand

A shell

Layered Metamorphic Rock

Layered and folded rock

Boudins This was one of my favorite features on the beach. I had heard of quartz intrusions and have seen them all over the place, but I had never seen one like this. This is called a boudin. It forms when an intrusion is heated and deformed, but the intrusion rock is more rigid than the surrounding material, so it ends up fracturing and the surrounding rock warps around it. Very cool! I had never seen something like this.

Another cool rock formation

Human Activity

There are quite a few caves in this area. One of which, Nordsandfjordhula (NOT pictured here), housed 133 Norwegians during the winter of 1944-45 after the forced evacuation of Finnmark. The cave is T shaped with each arm extending about 100m into the mountain. ^{2 3}

The roof is low, not high enough for me to stand

A seating area with a fireplace. Note: making fires is illegal in the Nature reserve area

Remains of Houses

The houses in Nordsandfjorden that were burned down during World War II were rebuilt and lived in briefly. The last to inhabit Nordsandfjorden were Gerd and Oddvar Olaussen, who moved to Sørvær in 1954. ⁴

The Foundation of a house

Marine Debris

There was also a very interesting assortment of marine debris. Although it is sad to see trash washing up on the shores of a nature reserve, it was interesting to see the variety of what had washed up, which included many items from North America. Like this can of Copenhagen.

A can from Canada or the United States

Metal float

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Closing Thoughts

This beach is probably one of my favorite places on earth. I felt like I could see the geology happening, with the river carrying out sediment, and the folds in the rocks. It all just made sense. It was also so peaceful and nice, and remote too. It felt like a special place. I am not quite sure how to describe it. You will have to visit it yourself to see what I mean.

Further Reading

For those interested in the geology of Sørøya, Slagstad et al. (2006) used isotope analysis of marble formations at Nordsandfjorden and elsewhere on the island to revise the geological history of the region⁵.

1. Romundset, A., Bondevik, S. & Bennike, O. (2011). Postglacial uplift and relative sea level changes in Finnmark, northern Norway. Quaternary Science Reviews, 30(19–20), 2398–2421. ↩︎

2. Hasvik kommune. (n.d.). Nordsandfjordhula. Retrieved 23 April 2026 from https://www.hasvik.kommune.no/om-hasvik-kommune/severdigheter/nordsandfjordhula ↩︎

3. Bones, S. (2024). Tvangsevakueringen av Finnmark og Nord-Troms. Store norske leksikon. Retrieved 23 April 2026 from https://snl.no/tvangsevakueringen_av_Finnmark_og_Nord-Troms ↩︎

4. Hasvik kommune. (n.d.). Nordsandfjorden naturreservat. Retrieved 23 April 2026 from https://www.hasvik.kommune.no/om-hasvik-kommune/naturreservat/nordsandfjorden-naturreservat ↩︎

5. Slagstad, T., Melezhik, V.A., Kirkland, C.L., Zwaan, K.B., Roberts, D., Gorokhov, I.M. & Fallick, A.E. (2006). Carbonate isotope chemostratigraphy suggests revisions to the geological history of the West Finnmark Caledonides, northern Norway. Journal of the Geological Society, London, 163, 277–289. ↩︎