Storfjord – in Norwegian, Storfjorden, literally ‘big fjord’ – is one of the most visited fjords in Norway: some 700,000 tourists, many of them on cruise ships, come every year to admire its beauty. There is the Åknesfjället, a 900-meter mountain, the most monitored in the world, according to the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute. This is due to the fact that a 700 m long and up to 30 m wide crack extends on its slope, which each year grows more than fifteen centimeters. The rift increases the instability of the slope so that, sooner or later, it will rush into the fjord. When the 900m mountainous section slides into the 320m deep fjord it will wash away 150 million tonnes of rock, causing a tsunami wave up to eighty meters high.
The tsunami will affect several populations living around it. The first victim of the disaster will be the village of Hellesylt, with more than 250 residents. Six minutes later, the industrial town of Stranda will be flooded, and after another ten minutes, the tidal wave will completely destroy the famous resort town of Geiranger, where many cruise ships arrive during the summer months. Thanks to the wide variety of seismic and meteorological sensors, geologists assure that they will be able to give a warning at least 72 hours before the collapse occurs and thus allow the evacuation of the 5,000 people from the affected municipalities. In 1934, a tsunami in the Tafjord fjord, about 40 miles from Storfjord, triggered a 64-meter-high wave that devastated the area, killing a total of 40 people.
At 110 kilometers in length, Storfjord is the fifth longest fjord in Norway , and is located specifically in the Sunnmøre region, on the western coast of the Scandinavian peninsula.
