Tafjorden is a branch of the Norddalsfjorden

Norddalsfjorden

Norddalsfjorden is a branch of Storfjorden in Norddal and Stranda municipalities in the Sunnmøre region of Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The fjord is long, when you include the Tafjorden that stretches further east, it is in total....

/Storfjord

Storfjord (fjord)

The Storfjord is a fjord in the Sunnmøre region, stretching from Hareid in the west to Tafjord and Geiranger east in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The Storfjord system includes the famous Geirangerfjord and Tafjorden, at small village of Stranda it branches off into...

en in the municipality

Municipalities of Norway

Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called counties , and 430 municipalities...

 of Norddal

Norddal

Norddal is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It covers the easternmost part of the Sunnmøre region along the border with Oppland county...

 in Møre og Romsdal

Møre og Romsdal

is a county in the northernmost part of Western Norway. It borders the counties of Sør-Trøndelag, Oppland and Sogn og Fjordane. The county administration is located in Molde, while Ålesund is the largest city.-The name:...

 county

Counties of Norway

Norway is divided into 19 administrative regions, called counties . The counties form the primary first-level subdivisions of Norway and are further divided into 430 municipalities...

, Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. The fjord

Fjord

Geologically, a fjord is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created in a valley carved by glacial activity.-Formation:A fjord is formed when a glacier cuts a U-shaped valley by abrasion of the surrounding bedrock. Glacial melting is accompanied by rebound of Earth's crust as the ice...

 is located southeast of Sylte

Sylte, Norddal

Sylte is a village and the municipal center of the municipality of Norddal in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is situated at the southern end of the Valldalen valley along the shore of the Norddalsfjorden near the mouth of the Valldøla river, just west of the entrance to the Tafjorden. The ...

, the municipal center of Norddal. The small village of Tafjord

Tafjord

Tafjord is a village in the municipality of Norddal in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The village is located at the end of the Tafjorden, about southeast of Sylte, and just west of the borders of Reinheimen National Park...

 is located at the end of the 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) long fjord.

History

When Olaf II of Norway

Olaf II of Norway

Olaf II Haraldsson was King of Norway from 1015 to 1028. He was posthumously given the title Rex Perpetuus Norvegiae and canonised in Nidaros by Bishop Grimkell, one year after his death in the Battle of Stiklestad on 29 July 1030. Enshrined in Nidaros Cathedral...

 fled up the Storfjorden to escape the forces of Canute the Great

Canute the Great

Cnut the Great , also known as Canute, was a king of Denmark, England, Norway and parts of Sweden. Though after the death of his heirs within a decade of his own and the Norman conquest of England in 1066, his legacy was largely lost to history, historian Norman F...

, he and his men journeyed up fjord until he passed through the Norddalsfjord and reached the Tafjord. From there they passed north up the Valldal

Valldal

Valldal is a valley in the municipality of Norddal in Møre og Romsdal, Norway. It is located north of the Norddalsfjorden. The village of Sylte is located at the end of the valley along the fjord...

 valley and across the mountain to Lesja

Lesja

Lesja is a municipality in Oppland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Lesja....

 on his way to exile in Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

.

On 7 April 1934, a landslide

Landslide

A landslide or landslip is a geological phenomenon which includes a wide range of ground movement, such as rockfalls, deep failure of slopes and shallow debris flows, which can occur in offshore, coastal and onshore environments...

 of about 2000000 cubic metres (2,615,901.2 cu yd) of rock fell off the mountain Langhamaren from a height of about 700 metres (2,296.6 ft). The rock landed in the Tafjorden which created a local tsunami

Tsunami

A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...

 which killed 47 people living on the shore of the fjord. The waves reached a height of 62 metres (203.4 ft) near the landslide, about 7 metres (23 ft) at Sylte, and about 16 metres (52.5 ft) at Tafjord

Tafjord

Tafjord is a village in the municipality of Norddal in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The village is located at the end of the Tafjorden, about southeast of Sylte, and just west of the borders of Reinheimen National Park...

. It was one of the worst natural disasters in Norway in the 20th century.