European Railroad Discussion > Norway Then and Now...

Trains in Picture #17:

http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2015/11/norway-then-and-now-tilbakeblikk/413710/

WOW! Really interesting ! Thanks for sharing!

Impressive, great work with the pictures!

It is interesting to notice how the glaciers have retreated within 100 years or so, being replaced by vegetation and even some smaller trees. Also, it is quite striking how much higher the water level in the sea actually is. Where I live in the Nordic the rising of the land masses (after ice age) effectively covers this sea level rise...not in that part of Norway it appears. 

I'm not sure what you are looking at in regards to the water level and glaciers as the water level looks exactly the same and there are no glaciers visible in either photo.  

Regardless, 'then and now' photos are always interesting.

Look more carefully, several people noticed this phenomenon independently, and talked to me about it (and this is not an effect of tide). In Nordic countries this is a pretty interesting topic as in many areas the land keeps rising. This is still happening after the ice age 10'000 years ago. But in the perimeter, like this area in Norway and Denmark I suppose the areas are loosing ground to sea. In Norway with mountainous terrain this might not be severe, but think about Denmark with very low lands indeed...

Last week the science news reported that one of the Greenland glaciers alone (the one located at the Northeastern corner of the island) will rise sea level about 46 cm locally (as we know sea level rising variates in different parts of Earth). This will not happen overnight and none of us will be here to see it, but it will be inevitable, as the bottom layer of this glacier has changed along with others in Greenland. Lots of water at the bottom layer acts as a lubricant according to news, helping glaciers move faster to the sea. Here we are talking about hundreds opf meters or tens of meters per _year_, but as this might be irreversible, it is a phenomenon of concern. And will in the end cause Greenland to loose much of its huge glaciers. 

Oh yes, we both wish there were more pictures of then and now! What a great way to bring the past alive this has been from this paper!

P Wrote:
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> I'm not sure what you are looking at in regards to
> the water level and glaciers as the water level
> looks exactly the same and there are no glaciers
> visible in either photo.  
>
> Regardless, 'then and now' photos are always
> interesting.

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